Accusing the Congress of delaying the process of preparing the detailed project report of Mekedatu drinking water scheme on Cauvery river, Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol on Thursday said that the inordinate delay in preparation of DPR was due to a ‘conspiracy’ and asked the Congress to explain the process adopted in forming the DPR.
“Political considerations have subsumed the interest of Karnataka on Cauvery projects. Though the Cauvery Neeravari Nigama (CNN) put up a proposal to the Government in November 2013 seeking exemption under KTPP Act for purpose of preparing a DPR, the then Government examined the proposal for six long months and in April 2014 the Government decided that an agency to prepare DPR should be identified through a tender process,” Mr. Karjol told presspersons. “The global expression of interest was floated only in October 2014,” he added, releasing the sequence of events in the Mekedatu project DPR preparation.
The revelation came in the light of the Congress remaining adamant over conducting the padayatra from Mekedatu to Bengaluru, seeking implementation of the project. The Minister said: “Nine months later in July 2015, the deadline for obtaining blank documents was fixed and technical bids were opened in August 2015 following which it was referred to the tender scrutiny committee. The Financial bids were opened in October 2015 and the tender scrutiny committee rejected the bid of CNN on the grounds that the rates quoted were unreasonable.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Karjol accused that the then Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil wrote to the Chief Secretary in June 2015 stating that the work of preparing DPR be entrusted to a consultant directly without tender process by obtaining exemption under KTPP Act though a similar request by the CNN had been rejected earlier.
Mr. Karjol said: “While the Water Resources Department had rejected the bid of WAPCOS, a Central Government undertaking, stating that the bid amount of ₹22.07 crore was expensive, the WAPCOS had in fact placed the bid at ₹3.26 crore and another company El Technologies had bid for ₹3.24 crore. Both these bids had been rejected owing to a conspiracy.” Surprisingly, the Minister said: “The Government granted exemption under KTPP Act on February 25, 2016 and the very next day the tender was given to El Technologies at the rate quoted by it. A completed tender process had been scrapped providing a lame excuse.”
Further, he said while El Technologies submitted the ₹5,912 crore DPR in June 2016, the State Government took another nine months before granting in-principle approval in March 2017. The preliminary report was submitted in August 2018, after a gap of five years. “The then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Mr. Patil have to explain the reason for taking the non transparent way and the political forces that were at work then.”
