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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

J&K Dy CM directed Power Secretary to allot Rs 700 cr project to a favourite without tenders
 
IAS officer Sandeep Nayak was removed after he resisted Nirmal Singh’s diktat to allot Kathua’s 100 mw solar plant to Chennai-based firm ‘Then India Energy’
 
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
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SRINAGAR, Oct 26: Principal Secretary Power Sandeep Nayak’s transfer from the all-important Power Development Department to the least significant Relief and Rehabilitation on October 19th was sequel to his refusal to allot a Rs 700 crore project without tenders to one of the favourites of the Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Power Dr Nirmal Singh.
 
Documents accessed by STATE TIMES make it unambiguously clear that the Deputy Chief Minister, who has previously had a stake in power projects along with another senior J&K BJP leader and now a Member of Parliament, during the BJP government, in Himachal Pradesh, wanted to allot a solar power project in Kathua district to a Chennai-based firm through a Jammu-based agent without tenders. Huge kickbacks behind such allotments during Congress regime have been a tradition.
 
The Chennai-based firm ‘Then India Energy Pvt Ltd” had established contact with Mr Nirmal Singh after his taking over as Dy Chief Minister and Minister incharge Power through one Anirudh Chandel of Pacca Danga, Jammu, and started efforts to get the allotment of the Rs 700 crore solar power project in Kathua without facing competition by other contenders. The project, that would generate 100 mw of solar power and sell it to State government at high-profit rates, was proposed to come up at Chan Arorian, Kathua.
 
After Principal Secretary PDD Sandeep Nayak refused to act on the Dy CM’s verbal orders, also conveyed to him through his staff, Mr Singh’s Officer on Special Duty sent a written note of the Minister’s direction to the IAS officer on August 6, 2015.
 
The OSD’s note reads: “As desired by Dy CM, Principal Secretary Power Department is requested to take immediate steps for signing the power purchase agreement with the developer so that 100 mw solar power plant at Chan Arorian Kathua is executed by the agency”.
 
Interestingly, apart from infringement of a constitutional obligation, such kind of allotment would have been also deficient for the fact that Dy CM’s illegally favoured firm had no experience of such an execution.
 
Rather than taking the Minister’s diktat, Nayak forwarded the proposal to Principal Secretary Finance Naveen Choudhary for his advice in the matter. Finance Secretary categorically turned down the proposal with the observation that no such government work could be allotted to any agency without calling tenders from the bidders through a competition.
 
After Nayak’s resistance, Dr Singh exerted considerable pressure on Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to remove the Power Secretary. However, Mufti resisted Dy CM’s sustained pressure for about two months. On one point of time, Dy CM even threatened to resign in case Nayak was not removed as Power Secretary.
 
Finally, in the Cabinet meeting on October 19th, Dr Singh managed Nayak’s transfer to an insignificant department. He was replaced by Commissioner-Secretary Relief and Rehabilitation Dheeraj Gupta. Within months of his return to the State from Central deputation and his appointment as Principal Secretary PDD, Nayak was shifted prematurely.
 
According to highly placed bureaucratic sources, Nayak narrated everything in detail to Chief Secretary B.R. Sharma who was perturbed over the development but could not put his foot down as Dr Singh was “terribly adamant” on the IAS officer’s transfer.
 
With two successful stints as Commissioner-Secretary Power and Principal Secretary Power and two more as MD of Power Development Corporation, the 1988-batch IAS officer has maximum of his achievements in Power sector alone. Major power projects he got executed include Baglihar-1 (450 mw) and Baglihar-2 (450 mw) which is likely to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 7t. Baglihar generates revenue of Rs 1,400 crore a year for the State government.
 
Attempts to seek Dy CM’s reaction did not succeed as he and his aides did not respond to phone calls from this newspaper.
 
END

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