Petition claims babus made the most while DND operator ripped off the commuter

More than a dozen top retired bureaucrats -- mostly from IAS -- have been accused of public loot in construction and operation of the DND flyover and Noida Toll Plaza by the Confederation of NCR Residents Welfare Associations. The Confederation had moved the Delhi High Court demanding a criminal probe against these bureaucrats, a special audit of the companies involved and an immediate scrapping of collection of toll by the operators.

Admitting the confederation's PIL, a bench headed by Chief Justice G. Rohini issued notice to six respondents, the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh governments, the Central government, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services and Noida Toll Bridge Project Company Limited.

Petitioner's lawyer Amit Khemka alleged that a group of powerful bureaucrats 'conspired' to form a private company, NTBCL, to construct and operate the toll plaza and later joined the same company on retirement, drawing fat pay and perks.

The construction cost of the project went up to Rs 408 crores from the original Rs 193 crores. Khemka alleged the lobby then allowed NTBCL to have a yearly return of 20 per cent on the total project cost, without even independently auditing its account.

Alleging quid pro quo, petitioners alleged that officers who had signed key contracts on behalf of the Delhi government, Sanat Kaul & T. T. Joseph, once retired, joined NTBCL as directors. Similarly, R.K. Bhargav, who was Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, at the time of the signing of the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) is now the NTBCL Chairman.

Talking to India Today, Sanat Kaul, an independent director with NTBCL, denied the charges. "When I retired I was invited to be a director in the NTBCL. It was because I was aware of the agreement with the toll company that I was invited. But I have no personal interests in Noida. I do not own any property in the area."

"After retiring I have been involved with many projects. This is one of them," he added.

Harish Mathur, the NTBCL, Executive Director and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) refused to answer a detailed questionnaire from India Today. In his email reply, he said: "Since the matter is sub-judice, I will not be able to respond to your mail." Mathur, too, is a former IAS officer.

There are over a dozen officers now being accused of manipulating three crucial agreements that led to a loss to public exchequer. The MoU dated April 7, 1992, the Concession Agreement dated November 11, 1997 and the Support Agreement dated January 14, 1998.

The MoU was signed between NOIDA, Delhi Administration (as Delhi Govt was known at the time) and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS). The concession agreement was signed between NOIDA authority, IL&FS and NTBCL and the Support Agreement was signed between the UP and Delhi governments.

The petition claims bureaucrats involved in drafting and signing these agreements had deliberately foregone government rights to favour the private company.

Despite allocating prime and sensitive land to the developers, both the governments had forfeited their right to supervise the implementation of the project or in the appointment of a contractor for the project or in the appointment of an independent auditor or independent engineer or the project oversight board.

Petitioner further highlights the absurdity of the agreements. The land belonged to Delhi and UP governments; finances were taken from government banks and financial institutions; different companies were engaged for implementation of projects, then what was, did IL&FS and NTBCL, the two private companies, who are present beneficiaries do?

The petition also alleges that IL&FS was not worth much, and it acquired investors only after winning the bridge deal.

IL&FS was was formed by top functionaries of public sector companies. The resident welfare associations began suspecting the toll operator's motives when the toll rate kept going up. They alleged that the actual project cost of Rs 400 crores had risen to more than Rs 3000 crores in the company's books in 2014. This had happened despite manifold increase in traffic volume, which results into 10-15 minutes wait at the Toll Plaza.

"It was surprising that that after collecting tolls for 15 years, rather than the tolls resulted into recovery of total project costs, the total project cost has increased. How, asked Khemka.

Without knowing or verifying the total project cost, NOIDA officials guaranteed a rate of return to the company. In the process, the company had no interest in keeping the project cost low, and it jumped from Rs 193 to Rs 408 crores. With no independent audit ever done on expenses and revenues earned by NTBCL, there is no way to ascertain their claims of still running in losses and thereby frequent needs to increase toll rates.