Imphal, Oct. 12: The Central Vigilance Commission has referred the alleged Loktak lake cleaning scam to the Union cabinet secretariat for "necessary action" after the Manipur unit of the BJP alleged that the state government had siphoned off a major portion of the Rs 244-crore lake development project.
Acting on a letter from BJP MP and Manipur in-charge Prahlad Singh Patel, vigilance commission director H.K. Beniwal forwarded the matter to the cabinet secretariat on September 29. The MP also wrote a similar letter to Niti Aayog, seeking action on the scam. Patel took up the matter after the BJP apprised him of it earlier this year.
"Both the vigilance commission and Niti Aayog have taken the matter seriously and we hope that the Centre will inquire into it and punish the scamsters," Moirangthem Hemanta, spokesperson for the state BJP, said today.
The Loktak Development Authority, a government agency chaired by chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, had awarded a Rs 224-crore contract to an outside firm, K Pro Infra Works Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of the Hyderabad-based Progressive Construction Ltd, on August 1, 2009.
The BJP said the subsidiary firm was dubious and the Ibobi Singh government had committed irregularities in awarding the work.
The work involved cleaning of 132-lakh cubic metres of phumdi (floating bio-mass). The government launched the project as a part of its plan to clean the water, environment and ecology of the 236.21 square km lake from pollution caused by floating of bio-mass and human habitation.
The lake is spread across the three districts of Imphal West, Bishnupur and Thoubal. Thick bio-mass floats on Loktak lake on which fishermen construct houses and live. The Keibul Lamjao wildlife sanctuary, where the world famous Sangai deer live, is also a floating bio-mass on the lake. The sanctuary is the only natural habitat of the threatened deer species. The lake cleaning project, however, excluded the sanctuary.
Alleging irregularities in the cleaning of the lake undertaken by the government, the Manipur BJP has also been demanding an inquiry into the lake cleaning project.
Following allegations of irregularities, the government had constituted an officers' committee, headed by the then principal secretary in-charge of finance, Barun Mitra, in November 2012. But neither has the committee's report, if submitted, been made public nor has the government taken any follow-up action .
The BJP is aiming to use the Loktak scam to corner the Ibobi Singh government on corruption. The party, which is emerging as an alternative to the Congress, had framed a "chargesheet" against the government and submitted it to the party high command before the Narendra Modi government came to power at the Centre last year.
The BJP has demanded a status report on the project from the state government and the arrest of all promoters of K Pro Infra Works Pvt Ltd.
"The Centre should form an inquiry committee, headed by a sitting Supreme Court judge, with a special auditor from the Comptroller and Auditor General so that there will be an independent, free and fair inquiry into the scam," he said, adding that the BJP would pursue the matter until all those involved in the scam are punished.
