House calls for case against IL&FS

Ranchi, Aug. 17: A house committee has directed the sports department to lodge a certificate case against Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) to recover Rs 88 lakh from it.

The Assembly committee, headed by BJP legislator Sarayu Roy, was formed to probe into the “scam” in awarding the contract for constructing Khelgaon for the National Games.

The state government had signed an agreement with the IL&FS to prepare and process the tender papers and select the company to build infrastructure for the 2007 Games. According to sources, the committee detected a “blunder”, committed by the company in preparing and processing the tender papers.

Under the agreement, the IL&FS was asked to insert a clause in the tender papers, making it obligatory for the construction company to pay Rs 88 lakh to the state government, which it paid to the IL&FS as promotional money.

But, IL&FS did not provide for such a provision in the tenders, which led Nagarjuna, the company that bagged the tender, to refuse paying Rs 88 lakh to the government. The mistake led to a loss of Rs 88 lakh to the government exchequer, the committee concluded.

The committee has also asked the chief secretary to submit a status report about the works awarded by the state government to the IL&FS — one of the country’s leading infrastructure development and finance companies.

IL&FS has been working on at least 13 projects in Jharkhand, including Jharkhand Industrial Development Corporation, toll bridge at Adityapur and Special Economic Zone for Adityapur auto-components.

House adjourned

The state Assembly was adjourned after paying tributes to former Prime Minister late Chandra Shekhar and eight other MPs and MLAs.

The House also condoled the death of former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma, BJP legislator Upendra Das, former MLA Jhaman Singh, Manjay Lal, Yogeshwar Prasad Yogesh, Surendra Singh, Bachcha Chaubey, Ajit Singh and Lal Babu Prasad.

Earlier, the Speaker called upon the members to make optimum use of the six sittings of the monsoon session to raise people’s problems and review the functioning of the Madhu Koda government.