States: Uttar Pradesh: Garden of Graft

India Today
Sep 21,1998

UTTAR PRADESH
Garden of Graft

Yet another inquiry implicates Kalyan Singh's key officials in the Ambedkar Udhyan case.

By Subhash Mishra

Kalyan Singh An "unparalleled" park in the country. That was what Mayawati had vowed to make the Ambedkar Udhyan when she floated the Rs 100 crore project in Lucknow last year during her stint as chief minister. In less than a year, the project has certainly made big news, hitting the headlines like no other park in the past. But for all the wrong reasons.

A fountain of corruption and fraud, more skeletons have tumbled out of the park's cupboard following a second inquiry ordered into its construction by the Kalyan Singh Government. And like the earlier Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), report, it has not brought good news for the chief minister. Under wraps for nearly three months now, the report of the one-man committee of Principal Secretary T. George Joseph has severely indicted half a dozen senior IAS officers, technocrats of the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) which executed the project, and the Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam (UPRNN), the architects, for a "sustained conspiracy" to siphon off government money. "The LDA," Joseph said in his hard-hitting report, "should be disbanded for its inefficiency and incompetence. Its vice-chairman J.S. Mishra has committed unpardonable mistakes not expected even from a junior clerk." The report concluded:

A disinformation campaign about the local soil having poor bearing capacity was deliberately undertaken by the conspiring officers just so that Ganga sand could be used.
The rates of the Ganga sand proposed by the UPRNN were astronomical and the project's High-Powered Committee (HPC) did not make any attempt to find out the market rates before sanctioning the funds.
The three HPC members -- then chief secretary Brijendra Sahai, PWD Secretary R.S. Mathur and Agriculture Production Commissioner A.P. Singh -- were the "authors of the conspiracy". The LDA and the UPRNN colluded with them to loot the exchequer.
Even the private architect, Satish Gujral, colluded with the contractors in the use of Ganga sand. The increase in costs made him richer by Rs 40 lakh. "How can a professional architect resist the lure of lucre for the sake of saving government money?" asked Joseph.
Work that could have been accomplished at a cost of Rs 1.21 crore was done at Rs 9.06 crore, a sum sanctioned by the HPC. Thus there was a conspiracy among the various officials concerned to loot the exchequer of about Rs 8 crore.

These conclusions apart, several irregularities were found in the purchase of the eight massive red-stone elephants. Besides the tender process itself being faulty, no penalty was imposed on the contractor or sculptor for not fulfilling their commitments. "The only hypothesis I can venture," Joseph said, "is that the concerned officers palmed off huge sums of money with the active cooperation of the contractor." There were bunglings in other contracts too: murals, the bronze statue of Ambedkar and anti-termite treatment.

The list could go on but the question is whether these findings will make any difference. Even when the CAG report was made public by India Today in April, Kalyan could not muster the courage to initiate action against those indicted since many were key leaders in the state. Besides Mayawati, the report had also named Urban Development and Housing Minister Lalji Tandon. Tandon being a senior BJP leader, Kalyan did not crack the whip lest the faction-ridden party should be further divided. Tandon, on his part, feigned ignorance by saying, "Main to un dino sirf postman ka kaam karta tha (in those days, I used to work as a postman, receiving files from one end to deliver them to the other)."

Now, with the Joseph Committee report also out in the open, Kalyan finds himself in the same predicament. As earlier, most of those indicted occupy key posts. Mathur became the chief secretary after Sahai's retirement and was recently shifted to the Government of India as additional secretary in the Surface Transport Ministry. Sahai is now one of the directors on the board of the controversial Sahara India group. A.P. Singh is the principal secretary, technical education, and enjoys the support of the RSS. And Mishra holds the plum post of urban development secretary under Tandon.

Action against these officials could cost Kalyan his Government. On the other hand, staying put would make a further dent on the cash-starved exchequer. Either way, it's a no-win situation. And while the beleaguered chief minister helplessly weighs his options, the corrupt are having a free run in Uttar Pradesh.

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