HC cites irregularities in Vadodara Lake development months after boat capsize
Twelve schoolchildren and two teachers drowned in Vadodara’s Harni Lake after an overcrowded boat with insufficient life jackets capsized on January 18
The Gujarat high court has pointed out irregularities in the award of the contract for the development of Harni Lake months after 12 schoolchildren and two teachers drowned there after an overcrowded boat with insufficient life jackets capsized on January 18. It held former Vadodara municipal commissioners HS Patel and Vinod R Rao guilty of dereliction of duty and misuse of their position.
“In our tentative opinion, both the Municipal Commissioners posted at the relevant point of time, are guilty of dereliction of duty and misuse of their position,” said a bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi on June 3. A copy of their order was posted online on June 9.
The bench was hearing a sou motu public interest litigation filed after the overcrowded boat capsized. It cited a series of procedural lapses and potential misconduct by the two municipal officials.
The court said that Kotia Projects was initially disqualified during Patel’s tenure in the first round of expression of interest (EOI) for the lake development due to a lack of financial capacity and work experience as it was a new entity established on October 5, 2015. A second EOI was published despite the disqualification and Kotia Projects was allowed to participate again.
Rao, who took over as the municipal commissioner in June 2016, presided over the later stages of the process. The court noted that Kotia Projects’ bid was accepted and forwarded to a committee for approval under Rao’s watch despite glaring inconsistencies in the company’s submissions and its previous disqualification.
“The proposal submitted by the then Municipal Commissioner Dr Vinod R Rao to qualify M/s Kotia Projects as [a] successful bidder to the Standing Committee on 23.09.2016, thus, suffers from grave illegality.”
Advocate-general Kamal Trivedi, representing the state government, informed the court that based on the observations in a fact-finding report, a competent authority will initiate disciplinary action against the erring officers as per the All India Services (Discipline And Appeal) Rules, 1969, and the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958.
The court last week rejected the state government’s report on the boat tragedy, saying it created a “kind of a maze” so that no conclusion could be reached. “Either you withdraw this report and file a fresh report, otherwise we will make very serious observations on this report... we will look into the records and pass the order,” Chief Justice Agarwal said on July 3, prompting the government to promise a fresh inquiry.
