After 2 Arrests, Odisha Vigilance Raids Firm Officials For ‘Shoddy Job’ In Hostel Construction

Bhubaneswar: A week after the arrest of a class-A contractor and his son, Bijay Agrawal and his son Deepak, for allegedly siphoning off government funds amounting to Rs 34.14 lakh, the Odisha Vigilance on Monday conducted raids at the office and residence of officials of Hindustan Steel Construction Works Ltd at Nayapalli, IRC Village, Bhubaneswar.

The firm is accused of substandard execution and misappropriation of funds in the construction of four hostel blocks in Sonepur district allotted by the SC & ST Development Department.

The Department had signed a MoU with Hindustan Steelworks to construct the hostels for SC/ST students in undivided Kalahandi, Balangir and Koraput (KBK) districts. The firm was awarded a work order to construct 26 hostels (120-bed) for ST students in Rayagada district, eight hostels (100-bed) for SC students in Balangir, four hostels (100-bed) in Sonepur and three upgraded high school buildings in Bargarh district at an estimated cost of over Rs 43.93 crore.

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Hindustan Steelworks floated tenders for the projects and entered into an agreement with Bijay and his son Deepak for construction of 12 hostel buildings, including the four in Sonepur, at a cost of Rs 8.12 crore. The hostels in Sonepur district were to be built at a cost of Rs 2.71 crore.

The father-son duo, in connivance with the employees of the firm, allegedly carried out substandard construction work of four 100-bed hostels in Sonepur during 2019-2020.

Following the allegations of substandard work, Vigilance’s technical wing carried out an inspection at the hostels in Sonepur and detected deficiency, substandard quality and deviations in construction works. The natives of Balangir , who were at large, were caught from Rourkela on August 29. Bijay had given power of attorney to Deepak.