HC cites irregularities in Vadodara Lake development months after boat capsize
- Posted on July 11, 2024
- News
- By Arijit Dutta
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The Gujarat High Court found irregularities in the Harni Lake development contract, holding former Vadodara municipal commissioners guilty of dereliction of duty, following the January 18 boat capsize that drowned 14 people, prompting a fresh inquiry.
The legal controversy has arisen out of an unfortunate incident that occurred when an overcrowded boat that was supposed to ferry students of a residential school on a study trip plunged into the water at Harni Lake on January 18, resulting in the deaths of twelve schoolchildren and two teachers. The court has pulled former Vadodara municipal commissioners HS Patel and Vinod R Rao into the scandal by charging them with negligence of their duties and abuse of office.
The incident was brought to the court’s notice through a suo motu public interest litigation filed by the bench comprising of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi and during the hearing of the case the bench mentioned these irregularities. Thus, on June 3, the bench, in its tentative opinion, said, “In our view, both the Municipal Commissioners posted at the relevant point of time are guilty of negligence of duty and abuse of position. ” However, the order was published only on June 9 online.
The court mentioned several legal violations and possible malfeasance of the municipal officials who were involved in the implementation of the project. It also discovered that Kotia Projects, which was disqualified during Patel’s period due to poor experience, financial strength and work experience was later readmitted to express their second round of EOI. Kotia Projects were awarded the bid, notwithstanding obvious contradictions and disqualification earlier and the bid was forwarded for ratification under Rao.
“The proposal prepared by the then Municipal Commissioner Sh. Vinod R Rao to qualify M/s Kotia Projects as a successful bidder for the Standing Committee on 23. 09. 2016, therefore, is ridden with grave illegality,” the bench observed.
For the state government, advocate-general Kamal Trivedi assured the court that the discipline of the concerned officers would be recommended for departmental action based on the observations made in the fact-finding report under the All India Services (Discipline And Appeal) Rules, 1969 and the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958.
The court also rejected an initial report from the state government regarding the boat tragedy which they said did not give a clear picture of the cause of the tragedy. Chief Justice Agarwal demanded a new investigation in this case, and as a result of pressure, the government assured to conduct a new investigation into the matter.
