Bihar / Bihar Dy CM's family, aides got ₹53 cr projects under tap water scheme: Report

Patna: BIHAR’S SHOWPIECE scheme to ensure drinking water for the poor through taps right at their homes, Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal, launched by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar exactly five years ago, is a success on many counts — it has covered over 95% of the target of 1.08 lakh panchayat wards.

But on the ground, the implementation of the scheme has also been marked by political patronage to a sweeping set of beneficiaries that corrodes Nitish’s message of good governance, a four-month-long investigation by The Indian Express has revealed.

Top of the list are family members and aides of BJP legislature party leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tarkishore Prasad who got projects worth over Rs 53 crore under the scheme.

Then come a slew of state-level leaders of the two ruling parties, JD(U) and BJP — a testament to how politics permeates the civil construction business here when it comes to implementing government schemes.

This comes when the Centre, showcasing its own Jal Jeevan Mission last month, included Bihar’s numbers as part of it, prompting a rebuttal by the state Water Minister. Bihar had jumped from the bottom five on the Centre’s dashboard two years ago (1.84% households that receive tap water) to be ranked among the top four (86.96%).

For Bihar’s own Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal, The Indian Express investigated bid documents for projects in as many as 20 districts and matched them with records maintained by the Registrar of Companies (RoC) and Bihar’s Public Health Engineering Department (PHED). The PHED is the scheme’s implementing authority along with the state’s Panchayati Raj and Urban Development departments.

This newspaper also visited project sites where those who got contracts had political links, spoke to several contractors involved in executing the scheme on the ground, and interviewed beneficiaries in villages across the state.

Bottomline: patronage flows from the top.

Records show that in 2019-20, the PHED allotted 36 projects under the drinking water scheme covering several wards in at least nine panchayats of Katihar district, from where Deputy CM Prasad is a four-time MLA, to his daughter-in-law Puja Kumari — and two companies linked to his brother-in-law Pradeep Kumar Bhagat; and close aides Prashant Chandra Jaiswal, Lalit Kishore Prasad and Santosh Kumar.

In some cases, the family’s hold was absolute: records show that work in all 13 wards of Bhavada panchayat in Katihar was awarded to Kumari, and Bhagat’s company. And, at the sites of all projects allotted to Kumari and the two companies, local staff told The Indian Express that Bhagat ran the show.

Officials linked to the scheme’s implementation in Katihar, speaking on the condition that they not be named, said Kumari has no record of any work in this field.

When contacted by The Indian Express, Prasad denied that any political patronage was involved in the award of these contracts — and pointed out that he was the Katihar MLA at the time and became Deputy Chief Minister in November 2020.

Prasad, however, confirmed that his daughter-in-law had got contracts for four wards but said he had no direct link to the two other companies although his brother-in-law was a director of one of them.

And yet, records show otherwise:

Puja Kumari, daughter-in-law of Bihar Deputy CM

Project: 4 wards, Bhavada panchayat, Katihar. Awarded by: PHED. Cost: Rs 1.6 crore.

Kumari is registered as an individual contractor with PHED and shares the same postal address as her father-in-law, the Deputy CM: JB Niketan, Gerabadi Road, Mirchaiwadi Chowk, Katihar.

She has been allotted work in four wards of Bhavada panchayat, barely 10 km from Katihar town with an estimated project cost of Rs 1.6 crore. Subodh Shanker, the approval authority for these contracts as PHED executive engineer in Katihar from June 2016 to June 2021, said that the project has been completed and around 63 per cent of the money disbursed to Kumari.

The Indian Express visited each of the four wards and found that several beneficiaries welcomed the scheme while some others complained of faulty implementation and incomplete work.

Sanjay Mandal, the designated water tank operator at ward No. 4, said 150 taps have been provided and that he reports to Pradeep Kumar Bhagat, who is the brother of Deputy CM Prasad’s wife. “We had trial runs in March and April. This is Puja Kumari’s contract but I coordinate with Bhagat’s men,” said Rajendra Jha, the operator at ward No.10.

Kumari could not be reached for comment despite several attempts by The Indian Express, including messages to her husband Amit Kumar who is the Deputy CM’s son.