After residents flagged GDA’s questionable awarding of Indirapuram
maintenance contracts to certain companies, Prabhat Kumar, chairman of
GDA, finally ordered an inquiry into the allegation. FedAOA had raised
concerns in May last year through an RTI query that GDA was repeatedly
awarding maintenance contracts to companies operating under different
names but run by the same people.
Speaking to City Spidey, Ravindra Godbole, acting vice-chairman of GDA, confirmed that an inquiry had been ordered into the matter.
In his RTI query, Alok Kumar, president of FedAOA, asked GDA to
provide details of the companies appointed for the upkeep of the
residential areas of Indirapuram. The suspicion rose from the fact the
companies Wilbrose India, Wilbrose Hitech Infrastructure Pvt Ltd,
Gazelle Suffolk India and Florida Facility Management Pvt Ltd, which
were given these contracts year after year, were owned by the same
people.
What’s more, these contracts were being awarded despite complaints of shoddy services.
The RTI also revealed that according to their agreement with GDA, the
appointed firms were also required to provide a host of other services
including door-to-door garbage collection, which residents say they had
never even heard of.
Bringing the matter to the fore again, Sunil Sharma, MLA of the
Sahibabad constituency, had recently asked GDA to conduct an
investigation into the issue.
GDA acting vice-chairman Godbole said that a committee would be
formed to look into the matter. “The inquiry report of the committee
will first be submitted to the vice-chairman and then to the chairman,”
he added.
Speaking to City Spidey, Alok Kumar said that the matter
reeked of corruption. He added that he had submitted a complaint to the
GDA chairman himself via WhatsApp and had also received a response
assuring him of immediate action on the issue. “We have been following
this issue for a couple of years now, and the matter came to a head
after the RTI query. We are now hoping for some real action after
waiting for all these years,” he said.
