Collector going slow in probe against RPS Infra, PWD engineers?

Nagpur: The district administration seems to be going slow in prosecuting RPS Infraprojects Private Limited, and engineers of the state public works department (PWD in the case involving irregularities in royalty challans. Instead of initiating action immediately, collector Sachin Kurve has only sent a letter to the PWD, asking whether the tampered royalty challans were considered while giving royalty exemption to RPS Infra.

Some 41 days after the complaint by activist Suraj Lolge, collector Sachin Kurve wrote a letter to PWD executive engineer, World Bank Division, saying it was the PWD's responsibility to check whether royalty challans are proper or not. "RPS Infra is executing Ring Road Cement Concrete and Expansion project. It is mandatory for RPS Infra to utilize minerals (sand and concrete) brought by paying royalty. As per complaint and documents attached with it, royalty challans are for minerals supplied to Genesis Realtech Private Limited (GRPL) and Trident JV. RPS Infra has applied stamp of its name on the challans. Was any exemption from royalty given to RPS on the basis of challans tampered by the company. Reply to the queries within seven days," Kurve said.

TOI had, on October 21, exposed that RPS Infra tampered with royalty challans submitted to PWD to be considered while releasing Rs300 crore payment for the Ring Road Cement Concrete Road and Expansion project. It is mandatory for the contractor to submit royalty challans for release of payments. However, RPS Infra submitted royalty challans in the name of GRPL and Trident JV to PWD. RPS Infra is the contractor and supposed to submit royalty challans in its name.

Lolge told TOI, engineers of PWD approved payment to RPS Infra even though the royalty challans were in the name of GRPL and Trident JV, which is an irregularity. "I obtained copies of all challans under RTI Act. Then I lodged a complaint. After this, PWD engineers allowed RPS Infra to stamp its name and also project on challans originally issued for GRPL and Trident JV, which is another serious violation. Then, PWD went on to approve these tampered challans and release payment of around Rs90 crore to RPS Infra as on September 29. Estimated cost of minerals purchased from these challans was only around Rs9-10 crore, and not Rs40 crore. Thus, PWD committed another huge irregularity. Challans in the name of GRPL and Trident JV were enough to prove RPS Infra was doing works by engaging petty contractors. However, no action was taken. It is also a loss of revenue for the state government as PWD was supposed to recover royalty from contractor and submit it to the collector office," he said.

Lolge said the collector office is delaying action despite all the evidence submitted to it. "I obtained copies of challans from PWD and also collector office. Tampering can be proved by just comparing the copies of challans. Collector office should have registered an offence against all responsible persons, but did not do so. Even now, the collector office has just sought information about royalty exemption instead of issuing explanation notices to RPS Infra and PWD engineers," he said.

Additional collector Prakash Patil assured to look into the case. "I received the complaint and have asked district mining officer Shriram Kadu to investigate."

Kadu said action will be taken against the responsible persons soon. "It is our responsibility to seek details from the concerned government department before taking any action. Therefore, collector sent the letter to the PWD," he said.

The PWD appears intent to shield RPS Infra despite shoddy quality of work, violations of norms, and violation of contract conditions. RPS Infra was blacklisted in Mumbai for shoddy quality of works but has faced no action here in last two years.