Inquiry into cement roads — Purohit demands action on Lokayukta

Informing this in a press conference here on Thursday, Purohit urged the Vilasrao Deshmukh Government to immediately act upon the recommendations of the Lokayukta.

Purohit had made the then Public Works Department (PWD) Minister, Nitin Gadkari, the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) Chairman, Srinivas Patil, Chief Engineer D G Marathe, the former Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) commissioner, B N Zhamre, Trust Engineer V T Chikate and Superintending engineer of NMC S S Indapawar as respondents. While filing a formal complaint against these persons, Purohit had alleged that the wrong-doing by the senior officials and the minister concerned had resulted in the loss of crores of rupees in the construction of the first lot of the eight cement roads.

The Lokayukta has said in his judgment that Nitin Gadkari, Patil, Zhamre and Indapawar now cease to be public servants and the office of the Lokayukta has no jurisdiction over them. Similarly, investigation against Chikate was discontinued as the office felt that the NIT was an autonomous body and hence did not come under the purview of the Lokayukta. However, it has accepted that the Chief Engineer, Marathe, was a public servant. But the available material does not suggest that Marathe has had any role to play in providing any data base for the cement roads project, the Lokayukta has said.

"After giving my anxious consideration to the material and the ultimate submission of Shri Purohit, although the investigation against the aforesaid all the six respondents has to be discontinued, in view of certain aspects brought to my notice by the record, I am of the opinion that the matter needs further probe by some independent agency which is technically qualified and competent for the job," the Lokayukta has said in his verdict.

In his petition, Purohit had contended that the approval for these roads was taken by providing wrong information. He asserted that all these roads were intra-city arterials and the estimates of traffic intensity on them were exaggerated. Besides, the construction work was sub-standard.

Purohit, who had quit the BJP before rejoining the Congress a few months back, said the verdict has given sufficient indication that there were massive irregularities in the construction of cement roads. "In the light of the ruling of the honourable Lokayukta, I demand that the State Government should initiate a detailed investigation into the construction of not only the eight cement roads in the city but also all other similar roads in the entire State, undertaken by the previous alliance government. This probe should be conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police on an urgent basis," he said.

Purohit is leaving for Mumbai this evening and likely to meet the Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, and Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bujbal in this regard and urge them to initiate an immediate inquiry.

He alleged that the former minister, Gadkari, and some officials had deliberately fed a wrong data about the traffic intensity on the roads proposed for conversion into cement roads. They have conveyed to the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) that these roads would have about 15,000 commercial vehicles plying on them every day. "I have proved beyond doubt on the basis of the official records from the traffic police that heavy traffic was banned on most of these roads. It is clear that the Lokayukta has accepted a strong possibility of fraud and corruption into the cement roads project and therefore, he has suggested an enquiry," he pointed out.

Senior Congressmen Premlal Patel, Deorao Kumbhalkar and Rambhau Mahajan were also present during the press briefing.