Two top engineers of the Public Works Department(PWD) in Jammu and Kashmir among six people, who had been arrested by Jammu and Kashmir State Vigilance Organisation on charges of corruption on Tuesday, were remanded to three days police custody by the Special Judge Anti-Corruption, Jammu, Sanjeev Gupta on Wednesday. The serving top technocrats have been identified as Superintending Engineers P S Sehgal and A K Gandotra. Awaiting orders of posting at the office of Chief Engineer (PWD) Jammu, after his transfer as Superintending Engineer Roads & Bridges Division Udhampur-Reasi Circle, Sehgal had been posted in Chenab Valley Development Corporation few days ago. Gandotra, at present, is Superintending Engineer, R&B Division, Udhampur. Of the other two, D D Gorkha had retired as Chief Engineer PMGSY (Prime Minister Gramin Sadak Yojna), Kashmir, in September last year, while Executive Engineer U K Sharma is presently posted in R&B Division-II in Jammu. Apart from these four serving and retired technocrats, the Vigilance Organisation have also arrested two private contractors, Ashok Kumar and Harminder Singh, in the matter. The case pertained to the period Gorkha and Sehgal were Superintending Enginers of PWD (R&B) circles, Udhmapur and Reasi-Udhampur respectively, while A K Gandotra and U K Sharma were Executive Engineers PWD (R&B) Division, Udhampur. Their arrest followed establishment of prima facie case during investigations into the matter. Sources said that the accused allotted work for construction of abutments on both sides of a 41.50 mts clear span motorable bridge on Thalora Sartari road at Dugee khad including construction pf approaches to a contractor Ashok Kumar at a much higher cost of Rs 92.75 lakh against the advertised cost of Rs 81.70 lakh in the tender. Significantly the work was allotted when only two contractors, Ashok Kumar and Harminder Singh had submitted their tenders. They subsequently allotted remaining works of Rs 177.28 lakh without calling tenders. However, to cover their illegal acts, they accorded three "post facto approvals’’ for Rs 60 lakh, 42.08 lakh and Rs 60 lakh besides an additional work order of Rs 15.20 lakh against the said work order to the same contractor grossly exceeding their monetary limit. The investigations further revealed that another tendered work regarding dismantling of an exiting 41.50 mts steel grid motorable bridge over Khu nallah on the Udhampur-Ramnagar road and its re-launching on Thalora Sartari road over Dugee Khad at a higher cost of Rs 28.01 lakh against the advertised cost of Rs 22 lakh to contractor Harminder Singh. Significantly, here too, only two contractors had participated in the tendering process, sources said, adding that no rate analysis had been done by the accused to arrive at the reasonability of rates. The arrests came as a shock among government technocrats with many engineers questioning Vigilance Organisation’s justification behind these arrests. The case pertained to 2013 when Gorkha was superintending engineer, they said, asking if he was an accused in the case then how Vigilance Organisation gave clearance to his promotion as chief engineer.
