Over Rs1L per head spent on 4-day IRC extravaganza

Nagpur: At a time when several works could not be started for want of money, the state’s public works department (PWD) has spent over Rs23 crore on the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) convention held in the city between November 22 and 25.
Considering the fact that 2,227 engineers and officials participated in the event, the expenditure comes to over Rs1 lakh against each participant in four days.

Though the PWD is yet to calculate the exact expenditure, the amount spent is likely to go up to a great extent. As per data available with the PWD, the state government had sanctioned Rs16 crore for the event, while over Rs7 crore were sanctioned for asphalting and beautification of roads head of the 79th session.

Apart from these approvals, the IRC committee also raised funds. Also, the participants had paid fees ranging from Rs10,000 to Rs500 each.

IRC organizing committee had approved works worth Rs28.85 crore for the convention. These works exclude asphalting and beautification of roads. TOI is having a copy of the works approved by the committee.

PWD officials, however, claim that actual expenditure was less than what was approved by the committee. “It will take around 20 more days to calculate the exact cost of the event. As the facilities were provided as per IRC norms, the expenditure might seem high,” they said.

PWD officials said amount spent on asphalting and beautification of roads should not be included in the expenditure on the IRC event. “Roads were asphalted and beautified as part of PWD’s annual maintenance works,” they said.

PWD officials also said works like asphalting of existing roads, construction of new roads, repairing of public toilets etc on the divisional sports complex premises will not be limited to the IRC session only. “It will benefit all programmes to be held at the stadium. Also, government would not have to spend on these works for some years,” they said.

Activist Anil Wadpalliwar, who had exposed some irregularities in the PWD earlier, told TOI that total expenditure on the IRC event could be over Rs40 crore. “It is a common practice in the PWD. Earlier, I had proved how PWD exaggerates expenditure for state legislature’s winter session in the city. Also, this time the PWD spent public money on works that were not at all relevant. Huge funds were spent on decoration in and outside the stadium. Artificial, temporary greenery and beautification works were carried out on large scale on the stadium’s premises. IRC convention was a meeting of engineers and not a fashion show or festival,” he said.

Wadpalliwar added over 1,715 rooms were booked of which 1,477 were in private hotels and 238 in government rest houses costing huge amount of money. “We have planned to lodge complaints with vigilance department for conducting an inquiry into the expenditure on IRC event,” he said.

TOI had highlighted how PWD repaired roads that were already in good condition. VIP road and Palm road were a few of the examples. Even, VIP road which has been proposed to be concretized by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) was taken up for asphalting for the event.