The Hindu : Dubey's murder: ''Bihar's lawlessness to blame''

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 12, 2003

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National

Dubey's murder: ''Bihar's lawlessness to blame''

By P. K. Bhardwaj

NEW DELHI DEC. 11. Close on the heels of the orders of the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, directing a CBI probe into the murder of an IIT engineer, Satyendra Dubey, two days ago, the Central Government today came out with a denial that it ever revealed the identity of the engineer working on the National Highways project in Bihar leading to his murder. On the other hand, it shifted responsibility for the heinous crime to the Bihar Government blaming lawlessness in the State for Dubey's killing.

Dubey, a Deputy General Manager with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), was murdered in Gaya on November 27 allegedly by the contractor mafia in Bihar, which he tried to expose in his letter to the Prime Minister.

Dubey's communication to the Prime Minister was unsigned and undated and the Prime Minister's Office, which received about 400-500 letters a day, forwarded it to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (North) for appropriate action, the Ministry asserted in a press release.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said Dubey sent several communications to the local officers of the NHAI and consultants. While his letter to the Prime Minister raised mainly general issues about perceived procedural shortcomings in the implementation of NHDP, his local communications were very specific. These communications were not marked secret.

The Ministry blamed the murder of the official involved in the Prime Minister's ambitious National Highway Development Project (NHDP) on the "lawlessness" in Bihar.

The Government criticised the role of the media too. It rued that "media reports have not taken into account the serious law and order problem existing in Bihar, where Dubey was working," and listed several instances of government personnel being attacked.

It also cited several instances where the Road Transport and Highways Minister, B. C. Khanduri, had written to the Bihar Chief Minister, Rabri Devi, complaining how "lawlessness'' was affecting the prestigious project.

"Between March 2002 and November 2003, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has written as many as five letters to the Chief Minister of Bihar expressing concern over the law and order problems in the State and urging her urgent attention to severity of the situation,'' it said, adding Mr.Khanduri also spoke to Rabri Devi on many occasions on the issue.

The Phase-I of the NHDP, called the Golden Quadrilateral joining four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata with four/six lane highways, was progressing satisfactorily in most States but "the progress in Bihar has been delayed mainly because of law and order problem.''

All the four highway projects had achieved marginal progress. Against the target of completing 70 per cent of the four-laning work in the Mohania-Sasaram stretch, only 21 per cent work had been achieved while on the Sasaram-Dehri-on-Sone length, a mere five per cent work had been completed against the target of completing 46 per cent work as on November 30.

The Dehri-on-Sone to Aurangabad section had achieved 43 per cent completion as opposed to 65 per cent work completion target and the Aurangabad-Barachatti section had seen only 12 per cent of work getting completed against the target of 42 per cent.

"Dubey will be remembered for his honesty, dedication and professional commitment to the NHDP," the release said.

It went on to say that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways took Dubey's letter with all seriousness. "NHAI officials at the headquarters fully shared Dubey's concerns and views regarding the need to improve various activities in NHDP such as preparation of detailed project reports and award of civil works.

"He was called to NHAI headquarters with a view to obtaining specific details in the mater. Also, suitable corrective action was taken on several points contained in his communications," it said.

The Ministry clarified that Dubey was not penalised for writing directly to the Prime Minister. "On the contrary, on October 31, 2003, he was promoted to the post of Deputy General Manager in the NHAI in recognition of his professional competence and his courageous, conscientious and persistent efforts to improve implementation of the work on NHDP at his level,'' it said.

However, it conceded that the Vigilance Office of the NHAI had "merely cautioned'' Dubey of impropriety in writing a letter directly to the Prime Minister.

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