Maya wants intelligence to check tender mafia…

The departments in which the mafia has a big role in tenders include the PWD,Rajkiya Nirman Nigam,Irrigation,LDA,Mandi Parishad,Municipal Corporation,Jal Sansthan and Jal Nigam,Bridge Corporation and Seeds Corporation.

A senior intelligence officer said: “The special branch of the wing will be engaged in the job. But it will be difficult to nail the criminal elements,as a majority of them do not apply for the work in their own name.”

Further,getting information from the departments will not be easy. In fact,the department could refuse to share information because the intelligence wing has no legal standing in such matters,the officer said.

In his opinion,the vigilance establishment would have been the right agency for the job,as it is specially created to check corruption and illegalities in government departments and organisations. Uttar Pradesh Engineers’ Association maintains that checking the influence of the mafia in tendering requires political will,not the involvement of intelligence.

Association president Akhtar Ali Farooqui,who is also an executive engineer with the Irrigation Department,said: “The criminal elements get patronage from the legislators and ministers of every ruling party. These politicians force the engineers to award them lucrative contracts.”

Farooqui said whenever they get evidence against such contractors and prepare the case to blacklist them,the ministers and the MLAs apply pressure to stop the procedure. “If any engineer dares to go against the directives of the powers that be,he is threatened or transferred to some faraway place,” he said.

The DM and the SP,he said,should be taken to task for the existence of contractors with criminal background in any district. Every contractor has to have registration in the concerned government department before applying for a contract. “The contractor has to procure solvency and character certificates from the DM and the SP respectively,to get his firm registered. The SP is supposed to seek an intelligence report before issuing the character certificate,but still the criminal manages to procure it,” he said.