Cong demands CBI probe into alleged Gurupriya bridge scam

Odisha PCC demanded a CBI probe today into the alleged corruption in the construction of Gurupriya bridge which connects the cut-off area in Malkangiri district.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on July 26 had inagurated the bridge that provided communication to at least 151 villages in the cut-off area under Chitrakonda block in Malkangiri district.

The bridge was constructed at a cost of Rs 187 crore, officials had said.

OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik, however, claimed that Rs 74 crore has been paid in excess to the contractor firm fraudulently. "This fraud has come to the fore after the Principal Accountant General (PAG) pointed it (about excess payment to contractor) out," Patnaik said.

"In this scenario the real picture of the state government is open to the public. When the state government is time and again propagating that it is perusing everything in a transparent way, it now has no way to escape after PAG report," Patnaik said in a statement.

Alleging that the sate government has misused the public money for the benefit of the contractor company, he deamnded that a CBI probe "must be ordered".

"The reason why the state government was in a hurry to inaugurate Gurupriya bridge is now known in the PAGs report," he said.

Patnaik pointed out that though the draft note written by the PAG (Economic and Revenue Sector Audit) Economic Sector-II, Puri branch clearly shows how the state government has paid Rs 74 crore in excess to the construction company, the executive engineer at Malkangiri says that everything has been done in a transparent way and legally.

Patnaik also claimed that Deputy PAG M Sridhar has written to the secretary to the state works department on July 16 that the Odisha PWD norms has been violated during preparation of the estimate for construction of the bridge.

The opposition BJP too criticised the state governemnt over the PAG's report on Gurupriya bridge construction.