The Surat CID (Crime) has busted a drinking water works scam by arresting 10 people, including government officials, for allegedly siphoning off state funds without executing the projects, police said.
The investigation has revealed that 90 projects have not been executed, but approximately Rs 9 crore has been taken for them, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Surat CID (crime), AM Captain, told ANI on Wednesday.
Of those 10 arrested, five are contractors, whereas the other 5 are government employees of the Gujarat Water Supply & Sewerage Board (GWSSB), he said.
“The Gujarat government’s scheme for supplying water to the tribal areas is done by the state government by building pipelines and borewells for supplying water there,” the officer said.
AM Captain added, “Misappropriation of the government’s money has been done without executing the work in real life. The vigilance department has verified 94 such works, out of which 90 have not been executed, but approximately Rs 9 crore has been taken for the same. 10 people have been arrested. The court has granted a police remand of 9 days…”
Those who have been arrested have been identified as Dalpat Patel, Rakesh Patel, Jagdish Parmar, Narendra Shah, Tejal Shah, Jyoti Shah, Shilpi Raj, Karin Patel, and Mohammad Nalwala and Dharmesh Patel
Surat CID Crime and Vigilance Team had received information that corruption is allegedly being done in the government’s scheme to provide water to rural areas in the Navsari district of South Gujarat, Vansada, and Bilimora.
According to the information received from the police, the main accused, Dalpat Patel, an executive engineer from Navsari district, had the power to approve bills.
“Therefore, he used to misuse his power, pass the wrong bills, and send reports of the completion of work that was not done on the ground. The accused also violated the official tendering rules to cause loss to the government treasury and arbitrarily issued tenders and gave the work to their own people,” Captain added.
Investigation also revealed that all the accused together had approved 163 bills from the government treasury till now, out of which 90 were done only on paper.