Construction scams

 It is an irony that the abode of the most respected institution-the judiciary in Nagaland- has been dogged by various allegations of irregularities over construction of the new High Court building In Kohima. On a PIL, the high court had asked the CBI to probe the alleged scam. The foundation stone for construction of the new high court building for Nagaland was laid in 2007 by the then chief justice of India, K.G.Balakrishnan in presence of chief minister Neiphiu Rio. The government of India had approved construction of new high court buildings at Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura. The newly constructed high court building in Imphal was inaugurated on April 7,2012. The newly constructed high court building in Meghalaya was inaugurated on March 25 while in Tripura, the newly constructed high court building was inaugurated on March 26,2013. The records show that while construction of high court buildings in Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura have already been completed within 2013, the status of the construction work for the new high court building in Kohima is still incomplete even after 13 years. The issue had been highlighted several times in the media through the press statements of various organisations. However, the state government has done precious little except make assurances that the job will be done. According to reports, only 35% of construction work for the new building was completed till date. According to an official report, the estimated cost of the building was Rs.161.10 crore of which Rs.57.61 crore had been released to the contractors. According to earlier reports in 2018, Rs.44,24,700 has been withdrawn against electrification and water supplies whereas the basic structure of the building is yet to be completed. Instead of concentrating on the building project, it was reported that funds were utilised for site development, protection wall, retaining wall, security fencing, approach road including the construction of the main HC building, power connection including transformers, consultancy fees etc.It was disclosed that , Rs.1.3 crore has been paid as consultancy fee which was described as being way too high. After exhaustion of the entire money, the state government again took a loan of Rs.12,45,90, 287 from HUDCO. In its affidavit-in-opposition, the Secretary in the Department of Justice and Law, Nagaland, in a reply to a PIL, stated that as per detailed project report (DPR), the total project cost was Rs.161,10,72,200 and it was based on Nagaland Public Works Department (NPWD) SoR, 2010 and due to escalation of price, if the DPR is revised as per NPWD SoR 2016, the total project cost will be over Rs.200 crore. However, knowledgeable sources acquainted with technical aspects involving the way in which government constructions works are done, have said the project estimate could well even cross Rs.300 crore. In Nagaland a project originally estimated at say, Rs.7 crore will ultimately shoot up by five times in two or three years. The common features of many government construction works are that they seem destined to fall behind schedule from five to ten years if not more and project costs shoot up sky high. These delays are intended to escalate project cost by multiple times over the original estimates. Perhaps it is time that such dubious practices are brought to an end with heavy penalties imposed for delays and action against officials conniving with contractors to push up costs under various pretexts.