Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena has approved prosecution sanction against five engineers of the Public Works Department (PWD) of the Delhi Government in an alleged scam of Rs 200 crore related to works in government hospitals.
Saxena has approved prosecution sanction under Section 17A of POC Act, 1988 (amended in 2018) for conducting investigation by Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) against five engineers of Electrical Division, PWD of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) , the LG office said.
“Approval for investigation has been accorded against Subhash Chandra Das, AE; Subhash Chand, AE; Abhinav, JE; Raghuraj Solanki, JE; and Rajesh Aggarwal, JE, of Health Zone, PWD as mentioned in FIR dated 6th May, 2024.
”This scam involving works in Delhi Government hospitals is estimated to have caused a loss of Rs 200 crore to the government exchequer,” it said.
The matter is related to complaints against them wherein it was alleged that they helped in awarding tenders to different companies, favourable to them in the name of emergent works at various hospitals of the Delhi government including, Lok Nayak Hospital, Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Science, GB Pant Hospital and Maulana Azad Medical College, as per the LG office.
During an inquiry conducted so far, it was revealed that the payments were allegedly cleared by these PWD officials to the firms / contractors, against forged / fake bills which caused huge loss to the government, it said.
“Forged signatures and manipulation in the spot quotation was done by the alleged PWD officials in order to give benefit to their favorite contractors / firms. This led to a loss of about Rs 200 crore to the exchequer,” the LG office said.
Notably, ever since taking over as the LG, Saxena has taken a very serious view of corruption in government offices and recommended strict action against delinquent persons involved in matters of corruption.