Prabhat Kumar, chairman of GDA, has finally ordered an inquiry into the allegation.
After residents flagged GDA’s questionable awarding of Indirapuram maintenance contracts to certain companies, Prabhat Kumar, chairman of GDA, finally ordered an inquiry into the allegation. FedAOA had raised concerns in May last year through an RTI query that GDA was repeatedly awarding maintenance contracts to companies operating under different names but run by the same people.
Speaking to City Spidey, Ravindra Godbole, acting vice-chairman of GDA, confirmed that an inquiry had been ordered into the matter.
In his RTI query, Alok Kumar, president of FedAOA, asked GDA to provide details of the companies appointed for the upkeep of the residential areas of Indirapuram. The suspicion rose from the fact the companies Wilbrose India, Wilbrose Hitech Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Gazelle Suffolk India and Florida Facility Management Pvt Ltd, which were given these contracts year after year, were owned by the same people.
What’s more, these contracts were being awarded despite complaints of shoddy services.
The RTI also revealed that according to their agreement with GDA, the appointed firms were also required to provide a host of other services including door-to-door garbage collection, which residents say they had never even heard of.
Bringing the matter to the fore again, Sunil Sharma, MLA of the Sahibabad constituency, had recently asked GDA to conduct an investigation into the issue.
GDA acting vice-chairman Godbole said that a committee would be formed to look into the matter. “The inquiry report of the committee will first be submitted to the vice-chairman and then to the chairman,” he added.
Speaking to City Spidey, Alok Kumar said that the matter reeked of corruption. He added that he had submitted a complaint to the GDA chairman himself via WhatsApp and had also received a response assuring him of immediate action on the issue. “We have been following this issue for a couple of years now, and the matter came to a head after the RTI query. We are now hoping for some real action after waiting for all these years,” he said.
