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| Coupling Pipes get Crores from Chandigarh for Taj friends | | More trouble for PHE Minister | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 29: The Minister for Irrigation and Flood Control, Taj Mohi-ud-Din is in for more trouble. Apart from facing annexing forest land and prime land at Polo View, he has now being accused of helping his friends from Jammu by overt and covert means.
Reports that speak of allotment of contract in violation of rules for procuring quick coupling pipes from Nidhi Pipes Ltd, Chandigarh being done to benefit his close friends from Jammu. As if it was not enough,allegations of encroachment of State land along Tawi River side in the name of beautification/re-alignment of Tawi have also come to the fore suggesting Minister's involvement in the encroachment.
Sources told Early Times today that when he took over as Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control in 2009, Taj Mohi-ud-din entered into an agreement with Nidhi Pipes Ltd. Chandigarh for supply of bigger-dia Quick Coupling Pipes supposedly to give benefit to his two friends from Jammu.
They said that without actually ascertaining the technical feasibility for making use of coupling pipes in difficult terrains of Jammu and Kashmir, Taj at the behest of his two friends, Rakesh Singh Nagar and Khalid Hussain, ordered procurement of these pipes from Nidhi group for which the contract was sublet to Nagar and Khalid.
Sources said though the pipes were laid in some areas of the State like, Poonch, Rajouri, Shopian, Kupwara and Uri on experimental basis but the same could not resist the pressure of the water and got blasted due to which the department had to remove the pipes. However, what is shocking is the fact that despite failures, the agreement for procuring coupling pipes from M/s Nidhi was not terminated and according to estimates pipes worth Rs 200 crores are lying in the stores of twin Procurement Divisions of Jammu and Srinagar.
They said that in order to put this deal out of sight, Taj kept rotating the charge of procurement division at Jammu and Srinagar between three loyal Executive Engineers viz Ashok Gupta, Rajive Gupta and Sunil Gupta. Not only this a Junior Engineer namely Fayaz Ahmad Paray was given the charge of Assistant Engineer of 3 Mechanical Subdivision of Srinagar while as Mohammad Sharief Choudary AEE is holding the charge of Procurement Division Jammu for last 7 years.
Sources said that Fayaz is actually looking after the construction of 5-storied AKA-SAKA Hotel/Restaurant in Srinagar in addition to his own duties of putting the quick- coupling-pipe deal out of sight.
Similarly, according to sources, Shabir is looking after the maintenance of Taj's properties in Jammu in addition to his own duties of keeping the pipe deal secret. They said, instead of going for the termination of the supply agreement, Taj continues to procure pipes from the company only because the sub-contract for supply of pipes has been allotted to Khalid and Nagar.
They said now when the financial year 2011-12 is heading for closure, the department is likely to procure a very big consignment from the company to avoid laps of unspent allocations. |
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