The Rana Raj: Story of Aakanksha Enterprises sweeping contractor of Manesar Nagar Nigam.

Gustakhi Maaf Haryana-Pawan Kumar Bansal

High level political clout around the contractor Shish pal Rana. –
Mystery behind marching orders of transfer of senior official of MC,Manesar.
Our investigation has revealed startling disclosures.It has all the ingredients of a potbelly Mumbai thriller having spices of
Political favouritism ,Spineless top bureaucracy and infamous deaf ears of the “system” .

Highly placed official sources revealed the saga of this powerful contractor claiming to be a Journalist from Karnal and enjoying close proximity to powers that be.
Two years back he was given contract for road sweeping, brush uprooting and drain cleaning of Manesar town at whooping rs one hundred crores and five lakhs, courtsey his political clout. After getting the contract he started putting bogus bills of manpower deployed for sweeping.Due to his political clout he continued getting the payment unhinged. His trouble started when few months back Urban Local Bodies department introduced a portal which will carry each and every detail of the staff deployed, including gos location and trips/GPS of vehicles deployed and processing of waste. All officials and staffs of all ULBs in Haryana were directed to clear bills only through this portal and that no manual bills will be entertained from december.
Bills submitted by him for the two months from 20 December 24 to 19 February,25 were not matching with the portal details meaning that he was not prividing enough manpower as agreed and pressing the authority for clearing his inflated bills. This was despite numerous sanitation complaints from parshads, local people and RWAs in the MCM area. The Authorities thoroughly chekced the data entered on SWM portal and checked his payment resulting in delay in his payment. To put pressure on MCM the contractor regualrly staged strikes of sanitation workers. He submitted above two months bill amounting rs eight crores sixty Lakhs. So a penalty of rs four crores and seventy lakhs was imposed upon him. Then, he used his political clout and made false complaints to highest authorities to put pressure on the officials to bow down to his power. It has also been reported that this contractor had been giving open threats to the officer/staff to get them transferred. He raised allegation that bribe is being demanded from him for getting the payment which the investigation reveals was a false deploy to put pressure.
Recall that Bimla Choudhary BJP MLA from the area had also complained that Akansha Enterprises is violating the terms and conditions of the tender. Recently CM of Haryana had held grievances meeting in Gurugram in which sanitation was the main issue and he had directed officers to take strict action against contractors who dont keep the city clean. Locals were also raising voices about poor sanitary upkeep of the area due to low manpower. The MLA had urged the Manesar Nagar Nigam to take action against the agency for violations of terms and conditions of tender under intimation to her. It’s noteworthy that the same contractor has another work by the name of Pathya in MCG area. And there also his payment is withheld due to enquiry. This was of course in addition to severe pressure on officials to perform and deliver results and make the city clean by monitoring the performance of agencies through the SWM portal.
However, there was pressure to clear the bill of the contractor who is close to a strong ex bigshot of haryana. The commissioner however held her ground and refused to bow to the pressure and thus had to face the wrath of the combined powers of politics and state machinery.
The contractor can now be seen openly boasting of his clout and is celebrating his deeds.
Is this the way forward for Haryana?
Has it become common practice to punish officers for taking the right stand?
What are the reasons that the millennium city is still reeking of solid waste?
Is there a need to give more space to officials to control the ground situation?
Why the estimates of fresh tender for the same work is 50% lesser than that of Akanksha ?
Should the portal be scrapped if it is not favouring the contractors?
Is the CM serving only words when he asks for strict action on the ground?
These are all questions that remain to be answered and pondered upon.