Tripura Govt. counters Congress party's accusation of indulging in Rs 10,000 Cr scam

The Tripura government has termed the allegations of Congres as baseless which said that there was a Rs 10,000-crore National Highway scam in the state. The Department of Information and Cultural Affairs on Monday evening countered the allegations by saying that they were baseless and indicative of a complete lack of understanding and are far from the truth.

Former Tripura Pradesh Congress president Gopal Chandra Roy had questioned at the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) and accused Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari and Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb of involving directly and in “depriving” local PWD of work.

Roy holding a press Conference cited an office note issued by Bhai Vijay Chibber, Advisor to the Chief Minister, on August 10 where he said he attended a meeting chaired by Gadkari at New Delhi.

The meeting consented to many decisions including the handing over of the 620.91-km stretch of national highways in Tripura to NHIDCL.

The meeting decided that a stretch of 229-km additional road length approved “in principle” as National Highway would also be handed over to NHIDCL.

Roy alleged that this move cheated the state construction agency of funds and without a tender too. Blaming Chibber for the deal, Roy gave evidence of Delegation of Financial Powers Rules, 2017 where negotiation is allowed for finalising any tender and unsolicited tenders for government works are not accepted in normal circumstances.

Roy said, "Since NHIDCL is a company, obviously it has been following a profit model. A government cannot do any deal with it without wider discussion with all concerned, including the cabinet. But in case of such major decision, Chief Minister should not avoid the cabinet and work on the advise of the bureaucrats,"

He further said that award of any work is bound to undergo competition between all eligible PSUs or organisations as per General Financial Rules of the Ministry of Finance so according to him this is the biggest scam in the history of Tripura. Roy even demanded a CBI inquiry.

The government, on the other hand, clarified that NHIDCL is not a contractor a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways's agencies for maintenance or development of National Highways. It further added NHIDCL has been particularly automated to develop National Highways in the NE region and border areas. The Govt again said, “Funds made available for maintenance of National Highways so far to PWD in the state has not been sufficient and PWD (National Highways) Division has found it difficult to maintain all the National Highway roads properly.”