It seems controversy surrounding the new sand policy refuses to end. In a fresh and grave allegation, former MLA M K Somashekar has accused district in-charge minister S A Ramdas of favouring five of his men awarding the contract of extracting sand at many reserves in the district flouting the rules.
Releasing a set of document to media substantiating his allegation here on Wednesday, the former MLA alleged that five contractors were awarded the contract of a total of 538 acres of land (sand reserves) flouting norms. The PWD and Inland Transport department had invited short-term tender through e-procurement. First and foremost the successful contractors- K V Chinnaiah (128 acres), Krishnappa (110 acres), Rajgopal (110 acres), Shivakumar (40 acres) and Prakash Babu (150 acres) had not participated in the tender.
Moreover, they had applied on December 8, and were granted the contract following day, according to the document. This was in violation of rules as December 15 was the last date to participate in the bid. In addition to this, the job has been awarded without fixing the time of expiry.
Somashekar alleged that the minister himself is hand-in-glove with the irregularities. So much so that, the loads of sand are being transported to the layouts developed by him (minister), and instead of labour, machines are being used to lift the sand. This is again in contrast to the tall claims made by the minister that the locals will be preferred during recruitments to lift sand.
He demanded the minister to step down, instead of acting according to his whims and fancy, speaking big of routing out sand mafia.
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