States: Uttar Pradesh; In a Limbo

The incomplete planetarium at Gorakhpur: jinxed venture

When Chief Minister Kalyan Singh took office in September last, among his first pronouncements was a vow to weed out corruption from the state machinery. Nine months down the line, he is realising just how difficult the task is. As investigation reports on various scams begin to trickle in, indicting key names in his Government, the chief minister finds himself in a fix, unable to initiate action. First it was the Ambedkar Udyan scandal, in which the Comptroller and Auditor-General indicted Urban Development and Housing Minister Lalji Tandon and a number of senior officers, besides former chief minister Mayawati, for alleged irregularities. When the report, under wraps for some time, was exposed by India Today in April, Kalyan chose to push the ball into the court of the accused by seeking an explanation from them.

While the heat and dust generated by the CAG report is yet to settle down, an inquiry report on the alleged embezzlement of funds in the construction of India's biggest planetarium at Gorakhpur -- recently submitted to the Government -- has caused him further embarrassment. The report of the committee, headed by Vijay Shankar Pandey, managing director of the Uttar Pradesh Cooperative Cotton Mills Federation, has highlighted "loot and irregularities" worth crores of government money by two private companies -- Three Joints International and Carl Zeiss of Germany -- in collusion with top officials under the present dispensation. It has described A.P. Singh, principal secretary of the Technical Education Department (earlier secretary, Housing and Urban Development) as the "chief architect" of the loot. Also accused of various charges (see box) are D.K. Kotia, secretary to the chief minister, Harish Chandra, secretary, rural engineering and some chief engineers and engineers of the Gorakhpur Development Authority (GDA), the project's nodal agency. The report recommends that these "corrupt officers" be suspended and a criminal case be lodged against them. As a result of the scam, the report said, the cost of the planetarium had trebled from Rs 6 crore since it was first conceived in 1986 by the late Bir Bahadur Singh during his chief ministership. The sophisticated equipment imported from Germany has been gathering dust outside the planetarium for the past six years.

Science and Technology Minister Hari Shankar Tewari says work on the planetarium will pick up once again as the state Government recently released Rs 45 lakh for the power connections. But the minister, it seems, was not up to date with the project: he was not even aware that the inquiry report had been submitted to the Government. Clearly, Kalyan was in no hurry to share the information with his colleagues.

THE OBJECTIONS

Tenders allegedly alloted to two private firms-including a foreign one-by tampering with records and keeping out other bidders on the filmsiest of conditions.

Machines purchased from a Swiss firm at inflated cost.

Construction work and material used are of inferior quality. Top officials were aware of this but chose to clear payments without inspections.

Blatant misuse of public funds worth Rs 5 crore.