Material worth over 20 lakh auctioned at just Rs 4.15 lakh
Tahir Mushtaq
JAMMU, July 26: It is unbelievable but true that quintals of iron, high quality timber and other materials extracted out of the dismantled building of District Hospital Ramban were auctioned at just Rs 4 lakh and 15 thousand by the team of Government officials. Although, the people had valued the entire material at somewhere near Rs 20 lakh but still the entire material was disposed at much lower price and that too in a haste.
According to official sources, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), the nodal official for auction, didn’t even publish a notice for the auction with an intention to keep it a low key affair. It helped the blue eyed contractor to acquire the entire material at a very low rate as the other potential bidders couldn't join the process due to lack of
information.
Sources further said that dismantled hospital building had nearly 15 rooms, of which iron bars, angles, stone, brick and iron sheets besides, timbers worth rupees 40 to 50 lakhs were extracted. A minimum of Rs 20 lakh was expected out of this auction process. But, surprisingly only Rs 4.15 lakhs was raised in this auction. It was like a lottery for the lone contractor was took away the material at a
nominal rate and is now making lakhs out of that.
Tahir Mushtaq
JAMMU, July 26: It is unbelievable but true that quintals of iron, high quality timber and other materials extracted out of the dismantled building of District Hospital Ramban were auctioned at just Rs 4 lakh and 15 thousand by the team of Government officials. Although, the people had valued the entire material at somewhere near Rs 20 lakh but still the entire material was disposed at much lower price and that too in a haste.
According to official sources, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), the nodal official for auction, didn’t even publish a notice for the auction with an intention to keep it a low key affair. It helped the blue eyed contractor to acquire the entire material at a very low rate as the other potential bidders couldn't join the process due to lack of
information.
Sources further said that dismantled hospital building had nearly 15 rooms, of which iron bars, angles, stone, brick and iron sheets besides, timbers worth rupees 40 to 50 lakhs were extracted. A minimum of Rs 20 lakh was expected out of this auction process. But, surprisingly only Rs 4.15 lakhs was raised in this auction. It was like a lottery for the lone contractor was took away the material at a
nominal rate and is now making lakhs out of that.
Source said that there were about 25000 bricks, 20000 stones and the quantity of iron was over 3 tonnes besides large number of iron sheets and iron angles alongwith timber of approximately 10 lakhs.
“The concern officials have organized an auction, but only few people were present at that time. The bidder was a single person whereas all other were just managed to be there” he added. Neither the list of auctionable material was made public by the department nor was the information of auction highlighted.
When contacted Chief Medical Officer, Ramban Dr. S.C. Khajuria termed the allegations baseless and said that the department had issued a public notice in this regard.
“After inspecting the material of the old hospital the committee decided the cost of material at around Rs 4 lakh.
“After inspecting the material of the old hospital the committee decided the cost of material at around Rs 4 lakh.
According to merits of market value, the said material was not in good condition hence the price obtained was genuine” he added.
He also said the department had decided about on the spot auction, so they didn’t prepare list of the material.
He also said the department had decided about on the spot auction, so they didn’t prepare list of the material.
However, people of the area have demanded probe into the auction where allegedly material worth several lakhs was sold at just Rs 4 lakh.
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