Working of PWD office under a cloud

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, January 19

The role of the office of the Executive Engineer, Provincial Division, PWD (B&R) here has come under a cloud after an allegedly forged enlistment certificate by a labour and construction co-operative society surfaced.

The forgery came to light when the Superintending Engineer of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) sought the said enlistment certificate to be verified from the issuing authority after the labour and construction co-operative society intended to offer bids for a tender floated by the LIT.

In a complaint sent to the state government and senior officials of the PWD (B&R), Punjab, it was alleged that ‘New Gill Co-operative Labour and Construction Society’ had submitted an enlistment certificate (bearing no. 21 dated December 4, 2019) with the validity of two years and a limit of Rs 40 lakh for offering bid against the LIT tender.

However, when the LIT sought verification of the said enlistment certificate from the issuing authority, the office of the Executive Engineer said in its letter number 3,456 of November 26, 2019, that the said certificate was not issued by their office. In other words, denial by the issuing authority meant that the certificate had allegedly been forged.

Strange as it may sound but rather than taking any action for fraud and fabrication of the enlistment certificate, the society was issued yet another enlistment certificate (no 06 dated December 17, 2019) with a validity of two years and an enhanced limit of Rs 50 lakh by the office of the Executive Engineer, Provincial Division, PWD (B&R), Ludhiana.

When asked to comment, Adesh Gupta, Executive Engineer, PWD (B&R) said the matter was in his notice and was being looked into. He said a show-cause notice was being issued to the society and if it was established that the enlistment certificate had been forged, criminal proceedings, as per law, would be initiated against the said society.

Timeline

• The forgery came to light when the Superintending Engineer of the LIT sought the said enlistment certificate to be verified from the issuing authority after the labour and construction co-operative society intended to offer bids for a tender floated by the LIT.
• In a complaint, it was alleged that ‘New Gill Co-operative Labour and Construction Society’ had submitted an enlistment certificate with the validity of two years and limit of Rs 10 lakh for offering bid against LIT tender.
• When the LIT sought verification of the said enlistment certificate from the issuing authority, the office of the Executive Engineer said the said certificate was not issued by their office.
• Rather than taking any action for fraud and fabrication of the enlistment certificate, the society was issued yet another enlistment certificate with a validity of two years and an enhanced limit of Rs 50 lakh by the Executive Engineer’s office.