ED appears in PMAY scam; AMC to blacklist Samrath Company

Aurangabad:

The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) registered a cheating case against Samrath Construction Company in connection with Prime Minister Awas Yojna (PMAY) on Thursday. Now, AMC has initiated the process of blacklisting the company. In this mega scam, the enforcement directorate (ED) has also procured all the necessary documents regarding the PMAY through the state government, said the administrator and the municipal commissioner Abjijeet Chaudhari.

It is learnt that the company had grabbed the contracts of constructing houses under PMAY at Gangapur, Phulambri and Soyegaon (in Aurangabad), Majalgaon (Beed), Devgad (Sindhudurg) and Rahata (Ahmednagar) in Maharashtra.

State-level inquiry

Earlier, a committee was appointed to investigate the irregularity of the PMAY scheme under the headship of the state’s additional chief secretary. Many irregularities were detected. The state Urban Development Department (UDD) then gave necessary instructions to the AMC. Later on, the IP address through which the contractor had submitted the quotation was investigated. The inquiry revealed that three quotations, from different companies, were submitted through one IP address only. The fourth respondent Ellora Construction was declared invalid. Hence the AMC sought advice from legal experts in the case and then lodged the complaint on Thursday evening.

“ The ED officials had demanded PMAY papers from the AMC, but I told them to take them from the state government. I came to know that the ED obtained the papers,” said Chaudhari while speaking to the media persons.

Deposited Rs 88 lakh as BG

Under the scheme, the contractor was to construct 39,000 houses in Aurangabad. The estimated cost of the project was Rs 4,600 crore (as per the rates quoted by the company). Hence, the company was supposed to submit a 1 per cent bank guarantee (Rs 46 crore), but it deposited Rs 88 lakh only. This was the reason why AMC did not sign an agreement with Samrath Company.

PMC of choice

The company had appointed a project management consultant (PMC) of its choice to prepare the detailed project report (DPR). However, there were several shortcomings in the report. The DPR was made without conducting a spot inspection and without taking possession of the proposed site. It was impossible to build 39,000 residential blocks at the site.

Pune’s building

To grab the project, the company also claimed of having experience in constructing one multi-storeyed building in Pune. Now, the AMC will verify whether the claim was true or false. The AMC has appointed a committee to verify the claims and construction. The committee will soon be visiting Pune, said Chaudhari.