House panel raps two IAS officers for RMSA failure

A legislature committee has rapped two IAS officers for the failure of school infrastructure development works worth Rs 1,634 crore, under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), recommending action against them for their apathy.

The Committee on Local Bodies and Panchayat Raj, headed by BJP’s Araga Gnanendra, in its interim report tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, recommended action against Principal Secretary (Primary & Secondary Education) S R Umashankar and RMSA state project director M T Reju.

Here’s what transpired, according to details in the report: For the period between 2009-10 and 2013-14, the Centre permitted 2,024 works to be taken up for development of school infrastructure - including classrooms, laboratories, libraries, toilets among others. The contracts for these works were awarded to nine contractors.

Two engineers violated tender norms to include a cost escalation clause in the tender contract, allegedly to benefit the contractors. The report observed that this was done even though the original tender agreement did not provide for it. “In 2015-16, the CAG had objected to contractors asking for escalation of cost. Even though the department knew that the state project engineers T Krishne Gowda and Vijay had wronged, no action was initiated,” the report stated.

Further, the works progressed at slow pace, with several of them still pending, the report said, urging the government to initiate action against the officials involved and to ensure that the pending works were completed.

When contacted, Uma-shankar said, “Since it is tabled in the Assembly, it is now the property of the Assembly. I cannot comment on it.”