It is alleged that even though the State Bank of India (SBI) main branch at Bhawanipatna had apprised the superintending engineer of submission of fake term deposit receipts (TDRs) by Suraj Enterprises proprietor Rajendra Prasad Agarwal and son Banti Agarwal, he did not take any action. Instead of informing police about the forgery, the engineer wrote a letter to the company proprietor and his son asking them to deposit the money within seven days that raises doubt on his involvement in the fraud.
On the other hand, the Bolangir police are examining documents at the district office of the Works Department. Meanwhile, the State government has blacklisted the contractor and his firm for acquiring tenders by submitting false and fabricated documents.
Informing this to media persons here today, Janaki Ballav Mahapatra, Engineer-in-Chief, Water Resources department, said he has informed his Chhattisgarh counterpart about the visit of two senior engineers - Superintending Engineer, Hirakud Dam Circle, Harmohan Pradhan and Superintending Engineer, Dam Safety, Gopal Chandra Ray - to Chhattisgarh on July 25.
“These two officers, in the first phase of their visit, would locate the dams and barrages the construction of which have already been completed and their impact on the water flow of the river. Besides, they would also visit the areas where the construction of other barrages is underway. They will go through the master plan of these projects and collect detailed information. We will have a detailed analysis of these data and discuss them with the Central Water Commission (CWC) during the tripartite meeting scheduled next month,” Mohapatra said.
On July 29, Executive Engineer of Roads and Buildings Department, Arun Sahoo, had come to take charge in Koraput after getting a promotion. Days later, Executive Engineer of Rural Development Department, Parikshit Dash, was also promoted to the same post and the dispute began after he came to the same office to take charge.
While it is yet to be ascertained how same post was assigned to two people, Dash has moved the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) seeking a probe.
"I had received a notice from the government saying that I have been transferred to Rural Development Department. Later, I came to know that Executive Engineer of Malkangiri was also promoted and given the same post," said Dash.
On the other hand, Sahoo has maintained that he followed government's instruction. "After following government's instruction, I took charge as Superintending Engineer," said Sahoo.