LED lights: Despite probe order, project work still on

JALANDHAR: Even as local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has marked an inquiry to vigilance bureau in the project of replacing over 65,000 sodium lamps with LED lights, the work is going on. Congress councillor Rohan Sehgal, on whose complaint the probe was ordered, has flagged the issue in a letter to the municipal corporation commissioner.

In a communiqué to Jalandhar MC commissioner Diprava Lakra, Sehgal has stated that after holding a meeting with senior officials of the department and the civic body, Sidhu had ordered the chief vigilance officer (CVO) to inquire into the project allotted by the Jalandhar municipal corporation, and stayed its further execution. Instead, the contractor company had increased the pace of replacing the lamps, he wrote.

“The same company, in the month of July, had stopped working, citing contract. It (company) said an escrow account has to be opened by MC (for security of company’s payment) and keep Rs 4.5 crore deposit in it. The company had refused to work unless the account was opened. Now, the company has accelerated the pace of work, with one thing in mind that when the local bodies minister scraps the project, it has a solid ground to go to the high court,” he wrote in his email to the commissioner.

When contacted, Lakra said a meeting would be held on the issue on Friday. Sidhu had ordered a vigilance probe and a forensic audit as well. The contract was allotted during the tenure of SAD-BJP and the probe and audit can spell trouble for the political leaders as well as senior officers of the MC at that time.

Earlier, Sehgal had drawn a comparison with a contract allotted by Ludhiana municipal corporation to replace over 1.06 lakh lamps at a much lower price. He had pointed out that while the Jalandhar MC signed the contract for paying total maintenance cost of Rs 5.22 crore in the first year for over 65,000 lights, the Ludhiana civic body had signed it for Rs 2.63 crore per year for over 1.06 lakh lamps. He had also pointed out that JMC agreed to paying 5% escalation every year, while Ludhiana MC contract had no such clause and for all the seven years it would pay the same amount.