Rs. 4,834 Crore Red Carpet For C.M. Ramesh 

C.M. Ramesh, a TDP MP and benami of Chandrababu Naidu is literally ruling the AP Water Resources Department, with the active support of the Chief Minister. The CM is directly awarding contracts to Ramesh by circumventing the competitive bidding processes. In order to award contracts to his crony contractors, the CM had removed several contractors by taking advantage of the 60(C) clause of the APDSS. Then, hiked the estimated costs of the balance works and gifted these fresh contracts to his crony contractors.

For quite a few projects, the Chief Minister used the same modus operandi of removing the existing contractors, jacking up the esitmated costs and award the new contracts to Rithwik Projects. Thanks to Babu's favoritism, so far, Rithwik Projects of Mr. Ramesh bagged quite a few contracts worth Rs. 4,834 crore.

As to HNSS second phase, Chandrababu has removed the contractors of 4th, 5th and 6th packages. He then revised the estimated cost of balance works from Rs. 235 crore to Rs. 568 crore and awarded the contract to Ritwhik Projects on quotation basis. The 87th package of Vamsadhara second phase was also subjected to the same fate. The initial contractor was axed for his 'execution delays', the government hiked the balance work costs to Rs. 221 crore from previous Rs. 47 crore, and awarded it to Rithwik Projects.

When the Finance Department refused to grant consent for these nominated contracts, the Water Resources Department has issued a tender notification with twisted rules. Even if any other company was ready to participate in the tender process, the Department had ruled out their participation. It would disqualify them by citing some testy conditions of the technical bid. Then, the contracts were suessfully gifted to the chosen contractors.

In the 27th package of Galeru-Nagari project, the value of balance works was only Rs. 11 crore. However, the cost has shot up to Rs. 112.83 crore once the contractor of the package was removed.

After awarding to Rithwik Projects, the bills of this contract were halted for some time due to the disputes between C.M. Ramesh and the Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao regarding percentages in the cut. In retaliation, Ramesh wrote to the CM about the way the minister was benefitting his favoured contractor to the tune of Rs. 54 crore in the Auvku tunnel works of Galeru-Nagari project. To rein in the conflict and avoid further damage, the CM has brokered a compromise between the two. Since then, the clout of C.M. Ramesh had gone up in the Water Resources Department.

The balance work of the 29th package of Galeru- Nagari project has also eventually landed in the hands of Rithwik Projects. The work which was worth Rs. 8.93 crore was retendered with an increased estimated cost of Rs. 83.95 crore, 10 times higher to the original cost. Needless to mention, this contract was also gifted to Ritwik Projects by flouting the existing rules.

Handri - Neeva Looted

For the HNSS second phase, the government has called for tenders for 36A and 36B packages. The 36A package was for the widening of Perur branch canal (between 1.820 km and 3.270 km) and providing irrigation water to 65,600 acres in Rayadurgam and Uravakonda constituencies by constructing distributaries under Malyam canal. The 36B was for providing water for 15,000 acres by constructing the right canal from Jeedipally Reservoir and the distributaries. The estimated costs of 36A and 36B were Rs. 233.40 crore and Rs.18.69 crore, respectively.

To ensure a 'smooth award' of the projects to Rithwik, the government did not upload the details of the 36A package on its website. The details of the 36B package were shown for both 36A and 36B tenders. Until the completion of tender schedules, the details of 36A were not made available to contractors.

These details were available only for Rithwik Projects and HES Infra, the only companies that have submitted the bids with higher quotes. Among the two, Rithwik has had the lower quote. This is a clear indication for the government bias towards Rithwik and in fact the government had already made up its mind to award the contract to the company; and merely ran the tenders' drama.

Same Method…

Indeed, these two packages were actually a single package- i.e. 36th package- and Om-Ray joint venture won the contract of this package in 2005. It had completed the works worth Rs. 51.72 crore. The contractor requested the government for additional funds, as mandated by GOs. 22 and 63, to complete the remaining works. Though Chandrababu gave additional funds to his favoured contractors with the pretext of speeding up the pace of the projects, he turned down the request by Om-Ray and removed them from the contract. The balance works cost was hiked to Rs. 252.09 crore, the package was divided into two packages- 36A and 36B and they were awarded to Rithwik Projects.

Previously, under the 36 package, a total of 63 km works- 21 km Malyala branch canal, 17 km Hagari branch canal and the distributaries of 25 km- were completed. Only another 32 km works remained. According to the experts, the balance works wouldn't cost more than Rs. 100 crore under any circumstances. This means the Chief Minister has pocketed about Rs. 150 crore from these two contracts.

Source: Emperor Of Corruption

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