Muradnagar roof collapse: ‘Single window’ for clarity in payments; three firms of contractor blacklisted

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation will soon have an online system to track payment to contractors in civic work.The move is expected to ensure much-needed transparency

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation will soon have an online system to track payment to contractors in civic work.The move is expected to ensure much-needed transparency in the working of the corporation. The move comes after Ajay Tyagi, the contractor arrested soon after the Muradnagar shelter roof collapse incident that claimed 24 lives on January 3, allegedly confessed to police that he had bribed corporation officials for the work.

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On Thursday, the corporation also blacklisted Tyagi’s firms -- Ajay Tyagi Constructions, Mahi Construction and Builders and Krishna Associates. The action follows an inquiry by corporation’s engineers.

“Work pending with them will now be allotted to the other contenders who had participated previously in respective tenders. If they decline taking up the projects, we will issue another fresh tenders for the remaining work,” said M S Tanwar, municipal commissioner.

Tyagi’s association with officials and politicians have come into focus since his arrest. Photos of him celebrating birthdays and playing cricket with officers and public representatives were splashed on social media.

Apart from Tyagi, the police also arrested his alleged accomplice Sanjay Garg, Nagar Palika executive officer Niharika Singh, junior engineer CP Singh and supervisor Ashish Kumar.

Tyagi allegedly confessed to police that he had paid ₹16 lakh in bribes. Civic agency officials said sometimes certain officials may hold back payment files on account of vague reasons and contractors often had to bribe them to release payments. “This often leads to other mal practices, such as poor quality materials,” said an official.

“We cannot comment on it as it is the subject of a police investigation. From our end, we will try to reduce human interference in project allocation and payments through an online single window system that will track payments and also highlight where the payment files are held up. We will be able to implement it in next three months,” Tanwar said.

The corporation officials, while blacklisting Tyagi’s three firms, said that the firm Ajay Tyagi Construction was assigned 13 works amounting to about ₹4.92 crore, while Mahi Constructions and Builders was awarded 14 works at a cost of ₹5.21 crore, besides which Krishna Enterprises was awarded six works at a cost of ₹0.64 crore

A special investigation team under the economic offences wing will be investigating the case. “There are works taken up by the contractor with the authority,” said Krishna Karunesh, vice-chairperson of the Gaziabad Development Authority.