The Hindu : New Delhi News : BJP demands CBI probe into `bungling' in abattoir project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 03, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

BJP demands CBI probe into `bungling' in abattoir project

Staff Reporter

`While 80 p.c. payment has been made to contractor, only one-third of the entire project work has been completed so far'

NEW DELHI: The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday alleged that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi administration was guilty of contempt of court as it was not carrying out construction work at the Ghazipur slaughter house project site.

Accusing senior MCD officials of putting the ambitious project in jeopardy, he alleged fraud in payments amounting to crores of rupees to the contractor who was awarded the project and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into it.

"For the past nine months construction work is virtually on a standstill despite payments worth crores to the contractor. As a result, the MCD will not be able to meet the Supreme Court June 30 deadline for the completion of the project," said senior BJP Councillor Vijender Gupta while addressing presspersons at the project site in East Delhi.

"It is ironical that 80 per cent payment of the total project cost has already been made to the contractor. The initial cost of the project was Rs.65 crores that was later increased to Rs.110 crores. Of this, Rs.87 crores has already been paid whereas only one-third of the entire project work has been completed so far. In the last two months also payment of Rs.36 crores has been made," he claimed.

Giving further details, the BJP Councillor said it was almost three years since the work on the ambitious project started after directions from the Supreme Court. But so far only half of the structure of the modern abattoir has been raised. "The project cannot be commissioned till the effluent treatment plant is ready. But the fact is that it will take at least a year to make effluent treatment plant operational as only recently the work order for the same has been cleared. It is, therefore, very clear that the abattoir will not start functioning for at least another one year whereas the Supreme Court has fixed June 30 as the deadline. This is nothing but contempt of court," he alleged.

Mr. Gupta also raised doubts about the machinery being procured for the abattoir. "It was decided that modern machines and equipments would be imported from Germany, but now I have learnt that the procurement of machinery and other equipments is being done from China, raising a serious question mark on its quality and other technical specifications."

Similarly, the civic body had also told the Apex Court that the abattoir would run in two shifts to meet residents' demand for fresh meat in the Capital. But now with the MCD withdrawing proposal for developing refrigeration facilities for the same, slaughtering would be done only in one shift, forcing meat-sellers to go for illegal slaughtering.

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