Banga MC ex-engineer held in defective stadium case

Tribune News Service

Nawanshahr, November 21

The Vigilance Bureau (VB) has arrested a retired Assistant Municipal Engineer, Ranbir Singh, who was accused in the case pertaining to the defective construction of a stadium and embezzlement of public funds at Banga.

Norms flouted to favour contractor

• An investigation by the Vigilance Bureau found that officials of the Municipal Council, Banga, ignored the specified instructions and colluded with a contractor for allotment of the stadium's construction work at Rs 87.45L
• Also, technical aspects were ignored and the construction was done without checking the strength of the land and without preparing the designs. The accused paid Rs 39.74L to the said contractor when the work was incomplete

He has been remanded in one-day police custody by a court. The VB has now constituted teams to arrest the remaining two accused — contractor Rakwinder Kumar and retired junior engineer Vijay Kumar.

Spokesperson for the VB said during the investigation of a complaint filed by Munish Bhardwaj, a technical team took samples from the stadium and sent them to the Institute of Irrigation and Research, Amritsar. The report revealed that the quantity of material used in the construction was less than the specified material.

He further said during the investigation, it also came to light that officials of the Municipal Council, Banga, ignored the specified instructions of the government and colluded with the contractor Rakhwinder Kumar for allotting the stadium’s construction at a cost of Rs 87.45 lakh.

Apart from this, many important technical aspects were also ignored and the construction of said stadium was done without checking the strength of the land and without preparing the advance designs. Due to the poor quality of material, the boundary wall of stadium has prematurely damaged at many places and the stairs built for sitting in the stadium were also damaged, he said.

The spokesperson further informed that without checking the work done the accused employees paid Rs 39,74,304 to the said contractor, while the construction work of the stadium was stopped.

In view of the said lapses and negligence, the VB has registered a case against contractor Rakhwinder Kumar, former Assistant Municipal Engineer Ranbir Singh and ex-JE Vijay Kumar under section 13(1)A, 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and under section 409, 420, 120-B of IPC at VB Police Station, Jalandhar.

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