Aurangabad: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out searches at three locations in Maharashtra's Aurangabad in a case related to fraud in connection with the PM Awas Yojana. The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation has lodged a complaint with the police in this regard and a case has been registered against three companies.
According to the complaint filed by Aurangabad Municipal Corporation Deputy Commissioner Aparna Thete, Samarth Construction, Jaguar Global Services and Indo-lGlobal Infrastructure filed their e-tenders from a single computer. This was in contravention of the terms and conditions of the Municipal Corporation. It has been done to intentionally cause financial loss to the government and cheat the Municipal Corporation, the municipality and the government.
Interestingly, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana could not be implemented by the Municipal Corporation due to the lack of financial capacity of these three companies. According to the complaint, four tenders were floated to start the PMJAY project at four places. While three tenders were filed by collusion among three companies, another company that had filed the tender shut down its operations.
There were also many complaints of malpractices in the PMJAY project implementation in Aurangabad. While 39,730 houses were to be constructed at seven sites in the city, only 7,000 houses have been completed. To increase the number of beneficiaries under the scheme to 40,000, many houses were planned and the work is underway at 86 hectares in the city.
After receiving complaints regarding the faulty implementation of the scheme, the housing department formed a committee and conducted an inquiry. According to reports, the Prime Minister's Office has taken note of the cancellation of the project by the state government. Many have speculated that around Rs 1,000 crore was amassed under the scam. There were indications that ED would probe the matter soon.
