Vijayawada: Chief Engineer of the Department of Public Health and Municipal Engineering Pamu Panduranga Rao’s reported involvement in the incorporation of an escalation clause in urban housing tenders has landed a senior bureaucrat and the Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA & UD) in serious trouble.
According to sources in the Secretariat, ever since Mr Panduranga Rao’s wrongdoings have come under the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s (ACB) scanner, the senior bureaucrat has been making efforts to get out of the situation unscathed.
According to the finance wing of the Ministry of MA & UD, the Government will have to bear an additional burden of Rs 432 crore in the current financial year, and Rs 216 crore in the year 2018-19 because of the escalation clause. The CM and the CMO were not in favour of inclusion of the clause in tenders, but Mr Panduranga Rao was able to incorporate it. A senior official from the Ministry says that inaction on the part of the Andhra Pradesh Township and Infrastructure Development Corporation (APTIDCO) has led to the scam.
APTIDCO had initially proposed the construction of 1,20,000 houses across the State, at a cost of Rs 1,450 per sq ft. However, the Ministry of MA & UD did not agree to the price. It yielded to requests of the lobbyists of L&T and Shapoorji Pallonji and set the price at as Rs 1,950 per sq ft. However, after a series of stories appeared in these columns, the Chief Minister reduced the price from Rs 1,950 per sq ft to Rs 1,700 per sq ft.
A few bureaucrats from the Ministry of MA & UD, in conjunction with Mr Panduranga Rao, made the most of the situation and misled the CM by painting a rosy picture of the shear wall technology being used. Though they tried to keep the CM and the CMO in the dark regarding technological specifications, the CM issued strict instructions not to incorporate the escalation clause in the tenders. However, Mr Panduranga Rao included it anyway.
The clause has been in effect from June 1, 2017. Two major construction companies and one indigenous company will benefit from the inclusion of the clause.
