Stringent Action If You Make Any Demands: L&T Told
Irrigation dept to miss rehab design deadline
HYDERABAD: The irrigation department has said that it will not hesitate to take “stringent action” against L&T PES-JV and that this action might follow if the company does not extend its “full support” for conducting the required investigations and subsequent rehabilitation activities at the Medigadda barrage.
The latest in the back and forth between the irrigation department and the company was in the form of a letter to the firm from the Ramagundam circle superintendent engineer in the first week of February.
It may be recalled that the two sides have been responding to each other’s letters for several months, with the irrigation department saying it holds the company fully responsible for the problems at the Medigadda barrage and would not hesitate to launch criminal proceedings against it, and the company saying that it cannot be held responsible for things that went wrong after the construction was completed as per contractual terms and conditions.
In the letter dated February 2, the SE Ramagundam Circle, said L&T must restore the Medigadda barrage at its own cost, and that “there shall be no question of implementation on a mutually agreed basis.” The February 2 letter was in response to the company’s earlier reply — to a previous notice — that it would cooperate for rehabilitation works following receipt of requisite inputs from the department's rehabilitation designer, and terms for implementing the rehabilitation works on mutually agreed basis.
The February 2 letter, however, informed L&T that the department identified Afry India Pvt. Ltd, as the design consultant for rehabilitation plans and an agreement would be concluded shortly with it. Incidentally, irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy had on January 26 instructed the department that rehabilitation designs must be ready in a month. It now looks unlikely that the deadline will be met with the contract with the rehabilitation designer still to be signed.
The Ramagundam circle SE said that the sinking of Medigadda barrage in October 2023 “occurred due to the contractor’s failure to attend to and rectify the defects within the stipulated agreement period, despite several instructions issued from time to time by the department.” He contended that the cancellation of a completion certificate issued to the company was neither “arbitrary” nor “invalid”, and that the action was done “rightfully” as per clauses in the contract.
The letter further said that the company’s objections that the findings of the Vigilance and Enforcement wing were unilateral as it was not allowed to present its case were invalid as the agency was vested with the authority to conduct investigations and recommend action against a contractor.
The department also directed L&T-PES JV “to strictly adhere to the instructions and recommendations” of NDSA, the V&E report, and findings of the Judicial Commission, warning that any “failure to comply with these directions may result in action being initiated for gross violations of the agreement clauses.”
