STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Vigilance Organisation Jammu presented Challan against Tilak Raj Sargotra then Executive Engineer and Rohit Puri before the Anticorruption Court Jammu.
Brief facts of the case are that the instant case has originated as an outcome of the verification conducted on the basis of an anonymous complaint regarding the washing away of 70.80 mtrs. span vented causeway over Aik Nallah in Rehal Tehsil Bishnah, District Jammu in 2011. The verification revealed that NIT No. 7/2005-06 dated April 2005 was floated by the Executive Engineer, PWD R&B Construction Division No. 1, Jammu for the construction of 70.80 mtrs. span vented causeway over Aik Nallah on Karail to Rehal Road Tehsil Bishnah for cost of Rs. 60 lakh (appox). In the tendering process the lowest bidder was awarded the contract after negotiations of rates at an amount of Rs. 65 lakh vide Chief Engineer PWD R&B Jammu No. G/10674-77 dated August 24, 2005 (on quoted items Sr. No. 01 to 12). The scrutiny of record revealed that the total amount paid to the contractor has been calculated as Rs. 88,82,148. The technical sanction had not been found accorded by the competent authority. Hence codal procedures had been found violated the soil bearing capacity had not been conducted before the execution of the work. Only of the basis of cross section of Nallah, the consultant had asked to design the vented causeway and had been provided the assumed hydraulic data by the R&B Department, thus he had been asked to prepare the design for execution purposes without proper details exercise by the R&B Department. The design so formulated was not got vetted by the department from competent authority also. The conceptual plan of the structure constructed has not been found satisfactorily implemented on ground by the field engineers from technical point of view. The curtain walls have been found made monolithic with bottom slab giving rise to an inverted U-type arrangement at the founding level. It has been found that the concerned engineers have on their own reduced the design depth of the curtain walls from 3.6M as per design to 3M and 2.5M respectively which indicates that U-shaped monolith has been constructed as un-balanced that becomes prone to failure. All these factors had contributed in washing away of the causeway, resulting in loss to state exchequer, which amounts to criminal negligence.
For the above said acts of omission and commission on the part of T.R. Sargotra the then Executive Engineer, PWD, R&B construction Division No. 1 Jammu and others prima facie established commission of offences punishable under Section 5(1) (d) read with section 5(2) P.C. Act 2006 BK and 120-B RPC and as such FIR under the above mentioned sections was registered in Police Station Vigilance Organisation Jammu. After completion of the investigation, Challan was presented.
