85 lakh flowers pots placed in Dense Forest of Shimla smacks of graft

Shimla, Oct 3 – CPI(M) blamed Jai Ram Thakur Government and ruling Shimla Municipal Corporation to make Shimla smart city project (SCP) a den of corruption alleging that Rs 85 lakh flowers pots were placed in the deep-rooted forest in Shimla town without studying their survival rate and ignoring forestry science.

This was alleged by the former Deputy Mayor Tekinder Singh Panwar and party legal cell convenor Advocate Sanjeev Bhushan at a press conference held today.

Bhushan stated that the town was kept out of the Smartcity project by the former Virbhadra Singh government when CPI(M) ruled the Shimla MC from 2012 to 2017. It was he who pleaded before the High court of Himachal Pradesh that eminent towns which have been erstwhile British capital were not included in the project thus fudging the data.

Himachal Pradesh High court found the CPI(M) writ petition valid and ordered the state and Centre to conduct a fresh survey. He said the town got central government funding to the tune of Rs 3500 cr, however, the present BJP government took charge of Shimla MC and state government after 2017 onwards virtually making this project den of corruption and said each component of the project was amended to favor the contractor and middleman and town was converted from heritage to steel and concrete jungle.

Tekinder Singh Panwar said they would knock on the door of state Upayukta as Smart City is the new area of corruption. He said the so-called double-engine government was defect mayors and the state government didn’t implement the policy document drafted during CPI(M) rule, however, Shimla smart city smacks of deep-rooted corruption both at the political and administrative levels.
The city deliberately did not create a project monitoring unit ( PMU ) quintessential for carrying out the smart city plan proposals.

This unit which should have been qualified with planners, engineers and development sector experts was supposed to steer and help the SPV in the smart city plan execution. Why was PMU not formed? This question the government has to answer. One of the reasons is that in the absence of the PMU the political assertion of the minister(urban development) and the officials take place directly and decide the spending of the money arbitrarily instead of going into the smart city proposals.

The current style of functioning has led to a split of work in the departments which has led to chaotic situations. For example, massive corruption has taken place in public works. The British period retaining walls were torn apart and instead reinforced cement and concrete walls were raised.

Each stone of the torn wall costs more than Rs 100 to 200 and nobody knows where the money is missing or how it has been counted. Likewise, massive money has been spent on the laying of flower pots in forest areas. What is the reason for this? Who gets benefits? The government must answer all this.

“The split-up department works, and their DPRS never met the technical PMUS giving a solid foundation for corruption. Whether such works were required or not, there is no clarity. The mountain city has been converted into a steel city. Is this what was required? There is no basis for the cost of such projects undertaken under the plan which were not even placed in the SCP ” he said.
There is no convergence of city sanitation and city mobility plans as is seen from the works undertaken during the last five years of the municipal corporation.

SCP proposed six underground tunnels to bypass the congested traffic currently being worked upon and working on one tunnel, however, public money and Amrut missions projects of the world bank to develop mobility, water supply and disposal of solid waste management never saw the light of the day.

Tekinder Singh Panwar said the water supply was handed over to private companies under the control of the state IPH department which was proposed to be under Shimla MC. He said people of the town were being issued inflated water and sewerage bills. The supply of water is highly erratic and People were deprived of basic amenities like water mobilities plan.

He said that instead of deploying commuters vehicle which decongests traffic and easy mobilities of its citizens. Now Inova vehicles which are more pollution prone and less occupancy have been purchased. He said during the last five years, towns did not move an inch to set up alternative transport systems like ropeways and escalators which made the town more chaotic and congested.
There are almost 13 departments that have an isolated approach and no proper monitoring of the work is done. All of these smacks of deep-rooted design ensure heavy kickback to the ruling party cadres who are the main beneficiaries in the allotted public works.

Another major area is the Shimla water works that have now been converted into Shimla Jal Nigam. The uplift of water from the Satluj River which should have started by now has still not been cleared. The appointed contractor who is a close associate of the ruling party is seeking a revision of the contract from around Rs 323 crore to around Rs 500 crore.

Whose money is being spent? The variation of more than 50 percent is nothing but a deep design to help the ruling party. It is in this background that the Forum against corruption seeks an urgent inquiry into all the above-related scams , failing which it will be forced to knock at the Lokayukta . Of all the above projects, except one, none have even reached a preliminary stage. This was supposed to be a massive investment that should have helped the town ease traffic woes as well.

The redevelopment was another major area of ​​city development and here is the list of projects that were supposed to be completed within a given span of time. It is shocking to note that nothing has happened on all the items listed above , except for the draft proposal of the Shimla master plan ; which too is out of sync with the mountain requirements. No wonder the Shimla master plan was prepared by an Ahmedabad – based consultant with a copy – paste model of the plains .

Meanwhile, the figures and the scope are illustrative of the fact that nearly nothing has happened in the city development aspect. Even if the area to redevelop- from Mall to Cart Road was struck aside by NGT, a new area should have been identified and work started. For the development of software and applications, a sum of Rs 614 crore was supposed to be spent.

This was for hospital and health management, smart parking solutions, traffic management systems, public transport management systems etc. Neither the hospitals nor traffic management systems have been upgraded. The party said right from conceiving of SCP the data was fudged and now it was made a den of corruption against the ethos of the project showing that Congress and BJP hand in glove to deprive the towns of their pressing needs.