Mysuru: The more than a century-old Vani Vilas Water Works (VVWW) is in the news for all the wrong reasons. A whopping Rs. 3.42 crore, allegedly paid to a contractor, violating rules, to repair faulty leaking pipes in Mysuru city, has come to light. The irony, it is alleged, is that this huge amount has been paid without the works being done.

There are complaints that between August 2012 and October 2015 a sum of Rs. 3,42,50,648 has been paid to a contractor. This amount was paid to the contractor to repair the leaking pipelines, supplying water to the layouts adjacent to Ring Road and other MUDA layouts.

Even though there is a rule that tenders has to be called for works above Rs. one lakh, the officials violating it, has awarded the contract to Mysuru’s Dhyan Associates’ T. Vasudeva, continuously for three years. It is also alleged that both the officials and people’s representatives are directly involved in the corruption.

Apart from this the VVWW through e-procurement tender has given work order  to Vasudeva to stop the leaking pipelines. The work order worth Rs. 19,22,876 was for the work taken up only from April 20, 2016 to May 19, 2016. However, it is said that the agreement was for the whole year. It is alleged that the officials have misled the Council, when the contract was awarded. The officials have justified their action by telling the Council that the matter was brought up before them and only after taking the assent, the bills were being submitted based on the piecework executed by the contractor.  The agreement entered between the contractor and the MCC says that if he does not carry out the repair work then Rs. 500 penalty will be imposed and it will be deducted from the bill amount. However, there is in no incidence of the penalty being imposed at all which leads to the question, whether the contractor had attended to all the complaints on time.

Apart from this, it is strange to find that the same contractor has bagged the contract from 2012. Does it mean that no one else in the State or in the city was fit enough to get the contract or why that none of the others participated in the tender, are the questions being raised.

It is revealed that between 2012 and 2015 the work orders were being issued to contractor Vasudeva without calling for tenders. Later, in 2016 e-procurement was called for in which four contractors had participated. The tender rules are clear that the contract will go to the lowest bidder. The surprising part is that the highest bidder, Vasudeva was given the contract, giving raise to suspicions.

The agreement also said that once the complaint was received, the contractor had to take a digital photograph and send it through the e-mail to VVWW and after the work is completed another photo of the work completed also had to be sent. The sources told Star of Mysore that this procedure has not been followed.

If a high level committee is constituted to enquire into the alleged fraud, then the irregularities can be brought to light. However, the question is, will the higher level officers investigate the matter is something that we have to wait and watch.

There is no incident of awarding the contract to the stop the leakage of water at this level, in the entire State. The officials of the VVWW have exhibited their cleverness blindly by awarding contracts like this. When the water is not being supplied properly to many areas in the city, where is the question of leakage of water, is what the citizens are asking.