Delhi Govt officials under lens for Rs 100-cr flyover deal

A "deep-rooted conspiracy" between government officials and a private company that was paid Rs 110 crore as compensation to acquire land for the construction of Rani Jhansi flyover caused a loss to the exchequer, says a report of the vigilance department of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North MCD).

The municipal body acting on the report that revealed "glaring discrepancies" in the land acquisition has set up a committee to look into the allegations.

The flyover has missed over a dozen deadlines over the last decade. The new deadline for the project is June 30 now.

The enquiry was ordered last May after the central government's land and development officer (L&DO) Anand Mohan in a letter dated March 30 to PK Gupta, the then commissioner of North MCD, wrote that "glaring discrepancies were committed to awarding compensation to a private company running a cold storage in respect of acquisition of land measuring 1183.96 square meters in 2010."

The report in its initial findings has concluded that a "deep-rooted conspiracy might have taken place between the directors of the cold storage and unknown officials causing a huge loss to the government exchequer."

However, when contacted by DNA, Gupta remained unavailable for comment.

The private company, located on Boulevard Road, was given the land on lease, which had to be freed for the construction of the flyover to decongest the stretch between ISBT Kashmere Gate and Pusa Road. The project was conceived in 2004 while work started in 2007 at the time of the Unified MCD.

"The notice for the acquisition of the said land was wrongly issued without intimation to the L&DO, the lessor, in this case, presumably with some ulterior motive," the report stated.

Mohan, the report said, has categorically mentioned that as per record the land belongs to L&DO, central government. The state government could have approached the L&DO office for allotment of land for construction of grade separator by the MCD.

Also, the report highlights that the compensation taken by the private company for the area of 1183.96 square meters even as the land actually taken was 698.30 square meters is "totally wrong and unjustified".

The alleged irregularities are found even as the civic body has remained cash-strapped since trifurcation in 2012. The case, however, has been buried in files since March last year.

For non-availability of vital documents on the file as well as the pendency of cases, the enquiry officer has been asked to collect the missing records and documents and file a detailed a report in the matter, the report said.

The issue was also flagged by the corporation's recently repatriated additional commissioner (Revenue) Renu Jagdev, who has mentioned the "financial wrongdoings" in her letter to the union secretary, ministry of urban development (MoUD), the lieutenant governor and the corporation's commissioner and mayor.

"It is clear that the case file has been buried for more than a year and neither the former nor the present commissioner did anything to pursue the matter. There has been a clear attempt to cover up and protect members of the engineering department, who without sending the file for legal scrutiny, awarded such a huge compensation to the private company," said Jagdev.

HIGHLIGHTS IN REPORT

• The report highlights that the compensation taken by the private company for the area of 1183.96 square meters even as the land actually taken was 698.30 square meters is “totally wrong and unjustified”. 
   
• The alleged irregularities are found even as the civic body has remained cash-strapped since trifurcation in 2012.