The roads and national highways projects in the state have progressed little so far — the exchequer is poorer by hundreds of crores against which more than 150 contractors procured high-quality bitumen on paper. Last week, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Chhattisgarh police registered FIRs against eight contractors who allegedly siphoned off Rs 400 crore.The move, made on the recommendations of the state government, are being seen as timed to match former CM Ajit Jogi’s return to the state on September 15. Most projects, under EOW scanner, were executed during his tenure.Besides the FIRs, almost 150 others have been slapped with notices by the Public Works Department (PWD) for claiming Rs 60 crore with inflated bitumen bills. The FIRs, however, have not named government officials or PWD engineers.Meanwhile, preparations are on for Jogi’s welcome. The former chief minister plans a ‘‘wheelchair tour’’ of the state, bouncing back from a near-fatal accident early this year. The Raman Singh government has lined up its moves too. Only last month, the state government had announced it would issue a white paper on the irregularities committed by the Jogi government in paddy procurement between 2001 and 2003.PWD Minister Rajesh Munat, who returned from his foreign visit a week ago, says there is no politics involved in the booking of contractors. The Cabinet decided to proceed on the basis of an inquiry conducted by retired chief engineer B.S. Gupta, he said.The inquiry brought up serious irregularities and indicted 165 private contractors’ firms for using ‘‘banned’’ bitumen. The report pointed to a close nexus between PWD engineers and contractors. Says a contractor on condition of anonymity: ‘‘We did so only on the advice of the engineers who insisted on progress (of the project), not quality of the materials or procedural formalities. Naturally, they (engineers) looked for a higher cut and we compromised with quality to make profits.’’Says another contractor, who with three others faces a separate inquiry: ‘‘How can you expect quality roads with everyone expecting their cut, or party funds in the election year?’’The former dispensation, however, believes the Raman Singh government is being vindictive. ‘‘I will expose all those, who are trying undermine the excellent work done by the government in building roads at breakneck speed in the past three years,’’ says former PWD Minister Tarun Chatterjee.But then, the first hint of a scam came from Minister for Finance and Commercial Taxes Ram Chandra Singh Deo in the Jogi government who shot off a note to Chatterjee in July, 2003, asking for records of the bitumen used by contractors. Chatterjee chose not to respond to Deo’s query.
