*Hanging on fire due to alleged corruption & Negligence
Ambala: Eight important projects started years ago in twin city Ambala on which amount worth crores of rupees has already been spent by the government have been left incomplete, hanging on fire due to alleged fraud in which the officers of the PWD (B&R) released payments to the contractors and suppliers on the basis of fake bills without work done or receipt of the material, as a result people in the area are deprived of the benefits expected from these projects. Information reveals that in-spite of the fact, excess payments released to the contractors and the suppliers by the department could not be recovered by the department in-spite of all efforts and the case was under trial in Punjab and Haryana High Court, presently in the arbitration.
Additional Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi visited Ambala on Tuesday to inspect all such incomplete projects and few other projects in which the work is going on too slow, and after having a meeting with the PWD (B&R) officers indicated stern action against officers of the department responsible for the embezzlements. Information also reveals that action was taken against a few technical officers of PWD (B&R) Ambala supervising these contracts and allegedly involved in embezzlement in the past and few of them were also suspended by the head office. Surprisingly, even a couple of employees allegedly involved in embezzlement were later promoted by the senior officers of the department, instead of taking any action against them for the reasons best known to them. According to information, media persons in the town as and when tried to contact the local Superintending Engineer or the Executive Engineer to find out the latest position in these cases in which huge amount has already been spent by the government, but failed to find out any positive response on the ground that they are busy in a meeting or unaware of the latest position.
Among some of the important projects yet hanging on fire include the International level football stadium in War Heroes Sports Stadium, Ambala Cantt where about 90% work has already been completed so far. This project was started on 11th March, 2017 and was to be handed over completely by 30th June 2023. Similarly, the project for construction of the residential flats for the doctors and para-medical staff of the Civil Hospital in Ambala Cantt commenced on 19th June 2019 and to be completed positively by 18th June 2021, is lying incomplete with less than 60% construction work so far completed, besides having large number of embezzlements in this project. The work for upgradation of Civil Hospital Ambala Cantt from 100 to 200 Beds started on 14th August 2019, still lying incomplete in-spite of the fact this project was to be completed by 13th August 2023 positively and nearly 40% work has been left so far.
Similar is the fate of few other important projects. Nearly 26% work has been completed in the case of Arya Bhat Vigyan Kendra Ambala so far, in which construction was started on 6th June 2020 assured to be completed by 5th December 2021. Homeopathy College along with 25 Beds hospital at village Chandpura near the town was started on 1st February 2021 assured to be completed by 31st January 2024, but still hardly 10% work on this project has been done so far. Similarly, in case of projects including a diploma college at village Lakhnaura Sahib, the construction of the building for Government Women College in Ambala City and construction work of a mini-secretariat in Ambala City to accommodate all government offices under a roof are held up for one reason or the other reason for which residents of Ambala blame PWD (B&R) officials responsible for neglect and the delay.
