Contractor fined even as work ‘completed’ before deadline

Gurdeep Singh Mann

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 1

In what has raised eyebrows, the Water Works and Sanitation Department has imposed Rs 20 lakh as fine on a contractor for “incomplete” construction of a water treatment plant even as his certificate for the renewal of registration mentions that the work assigned to him has been completed.

The contractor has been given Rs 3.93 crore out of the total Rs 4.11 crore as the construction cost.

Contractor Pawan Dixit, while showing the letter issued by the department, claimed that the work mentioned in the tender was completed three months before the deadline. He accused department officials of not taking over the plant and shifting the onus of delay on him to escape Bathinda MP Harsimrat Badal’s wrath.

The contractor alleged that as the MP held Sangat Darshan programs often in Bathinda and repeatedly enquired about reasons behind the delay over various projects, the department officials were trying to put the blame on him.

Harsimrat had laid the foundation stone for the augmentation of the Water Works Civil Station, Bathinda, on February 22, 2014, which was to be completed at a cost of Rs 14.09 crore. Apart from the construction of a water treatment plant, a water pipe was to be laid to carry water to residential localities.

The augmentation work was aimed to provide 3 million gallon additional drinking water to 40,000 population of Bathinda, after a detailed survey. Department officials said the survey was conducted five years ago and it had been three years that the process to augment the plant was initiated.

Apart from the water treatment plant, the contractor, through e-tendering, also got the contract to construct an overhead service reservoir and an underground closed water tank for Rs 4.11 crore. The work should have been completed within nine months on March 31, 2015, but it was finished within six months on December 2, 2014.

“The firm completed the work worth Rs 411.50 lakh (or Rs 4.11 crore) at the head water works for the renewal of reenlistment. The testing of the constructed work too has been done now,” Dixit added.

Executive Engineer Jaswinder Singh claimed the work allotted to the contractor was incomplete and so they had imposed the penalty under Section-II of the agreement. When asked how the contractor managed to renew his application for renewal of registration, he said, “I will ask SDO Jaspreet Kaur to throw light upon this.”

SDO Jaspreet Kaur said, “As per the DNIT (Detailed Notice Inviting Tender), work is incomplete on the part of the contractor. I have no idea who issued the renewal registration to the contractor.” She said a pump was yet to be constructed and the interlinking of the constructed tanks was yet to be done and a payment of Rs 18 lakh to him was still due.

Deputy Commissioner Basant Garg said it was a serious matter and he would look into it.