GHMC's roads wing to come under ACB radar

Hyderabad: The anti-corruption raids on the GHMC’s town planning wing officials have exposed the blatant corruption in the department. The GHMC’s engineering department which is responsible for laying and maintenance of roads will be coming under the scanner soon, according to sources in the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). The ACB, Hyderabad division, has been receiving an increasing number of complaints against GHMC engineers, primarily assistant and deputy engineers.

Complaints range from the degenerative quality of the roads to the alleged nexus between contractors and engineers and the reported commission earned through the projects amounting to lakhs of rupees.

Mr V. Ravi Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police, ACB, said, “The allegations are mostly against deputy and assistant engineers regarding bill payments to contractors. The complainants allege that neither do the engineers oversee the quality of work done by contractors nor do they run quality checks on the Bitumen material used in road laying. They also pass bills that charge much more than the value of work done. There are allegations that the contractors, who were asked to lay bituminous tar (BT) roads, have submitted bills without doing the work and the engineers have passed those bills too.”

Apart from a percentage of the approved tender amount that go into the private coffers of GHMC bigwigs, a few GHMC engineers make money and so do the assistant engineers who supervise the work.

The engineering section oversees all civic infrastructure works, mainly roads, drains, community halls, footpaths, repairs, construction of compound walls, park development and model markets. The annual state budget allocates funds for each project circle-wise; the engineering wing deals with the design, planning and execution of civic works. For instance, to lay a new road of one kilometer, the GHMC spends above '30 lakh. Apart from a percentage of the approved tender amount that go into the private coffers of GHMC bigwigs, a few GHMC engineers make money and so do the assistant engineers who supervise the work.

When a complaint is filed at the ACB, the department deploys a team to crosscheck the allegation. Upon investigation, if the complaints are proven true, an ACB raid is conducted with the help of a court order.