Rajasthan: Delhi-Mumbai Expressway turns into highway of corruption; ACB arrest 5 officials red-handed while taking bribe

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway project is proving to be a highway of corruption in Rajasthan. Five officers including 1 IAS, 1 IPS and 3 Rajasthan Administrative Officers have been traped taking bribes of lakhs of rupees from contractors by the state Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) up till now.

The ACB has recently trapped the former collector of Alwar NL Pahadia and RAS officer Ashok Sankhla allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 5 lakhs. Both the officers are in jail now.

Before this, the ACB had trapped an IPS officer Manish Agarwal and two RAS officers Pinky Meena and Pushkar Mittal who were posted in Dausa District. The IPS Manish Agarwal and the RAS Pushakar Mittal were allegedly taking bribes of Rs 4-5 lakhs while RAS officer Pinky Meena had allegedly asked for a bribe of Rs 10 lakh from a contractor. All three are on bail and have been suspended from the service.

As per reports, the officers of the districts are asking for a bribe in the name of land acquisition and ‘smooth working’ and companies are bound to pay as they have to deal with the district officers every day.

The ACB is constantly keeping eye on the project and has trapped an information assistant in Kota where the work is to start soon. Some officers are also on the radar.

‘We are keeping an eye on the project but I can not reveal more than this about our strategy,’ said BL Soni, Director-General ACB.

While the officials of NHAI said that their role is limited to quality control and time-bound completion of the project. ‘NHAI keeps an eye on quality control but our vigilance teams are active and whenever there is any complaint we act under our jurisdiction and convey to state agencies if required,’ said Pawan Kumar, the Chief General Manager of NHAI Rajasthan.

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is a project that will connect both the metro cities under the Bharatmala scheme of the central government. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is handling the project. This 1310 km long Expressway will pass through 6 states namely Delhi, Harayana, Rajasthan, MP, Gujrat and Maharashtra and around 374 km of the starch is passing through the 7 districts of Rajasthan namely Alwar, Bharatpur, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, Tonk, Bundi, Kota.

The work of around 160 km of Expressway in Alwar and Dausa has been completed in the state more than 200 km of the road is still to be made.