The exposure of Rs 200-crore scandal in the Public Works Department (PWD) is a matter of serious concern especially when the State Government coffer is empty. The loot and plunder came to light after an RTI activist had exposed the scandal pertaining to self withdrawal of Rs 200 Cr by the department officers through fictitious bills on the pretext of flood damages, disaster management, slip clearance, repairs and renovation etc by throwing the codal formalities to winds in the name of emergency nature of the works. Expressing concern over the massive pilferage of R&B funds and blatant circumvention of codal procedures, Chairman JKNPP and former Minister, Harsh Dev Singh has urged upon the Chief Minister to personally intervene to ensure the proper utilisation of the sanctioned funds. There is a need to activate and strengthen surveillance so as to prevent such loot and plunder of public funds envisaged for creation of physical infrastructure in the State. Singh regretted that the issue was not only thrown under the carpet but the Govt. had failed to check the acts of omissions and commissions being still conducted in the PWD with impunity. Reminding the Govt. of its rhetorical overtures on curbing corruption and checking malpractices, he said that a good beginning could have been made by initiating action in the scam. He said that the same position was being replicated in the current financial year with a deep rooted and well knit mafia operational in the system facilitating the highly mischievous bargains. Harsh said that though during the last two months the Union Govt funding for R&B sector has reached to Rs 960 Cr including earlier sanction of Rs. 613 Cr but the State Govt. had failed to initiate the preliminary holding of basic surveys, preparation of DPRs and tendering of the approved works. He regretted that rather than concentrating on planning and execution, the concerned authorities were busy in scheming the placement of their favourites at the plum postings and prompting bids for new postings. Such scams going unpunished and unnoticed show the Govt apathy towards the prevailing corruption level in the government departments.
