India News | 8 Arrested in Guwahati De-siltation Irregularities

Guwahati, Oct 21 (PTI) Six engineers of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) and a retired Assam civil service officer were among the eight people who were arrested on Friday for alleged irregularities in the execution of de-siltation work in the city, police said

Besides the government officials, the director of a private firm that was engaged for hiring vehicles and machinery for de-siltation of channels and drains from April 2 to May 26 was arrested, they said.

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The arrests were made after the Chief Minister's Special Vigilance Cell filed a police complaint over the matter following an inquiry conducted by it.

The arrested Assam Civil Service officer was serving as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) when the alleged corruption took place, police said.

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The private firm allegedly submitted bills for crores of rupees with forged weighbridge slips and withdrew government funds, they said.

The firm also allegedly submitted bills to GMC showing supply of vehicles and machinery at an inflated rate.

The staff of GMC allegedly criminally conspired with the firm, and did not implement de-siltation works as per terms and conditions laid down in the tender documents, police said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)