THE arrest of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and his son and Mayor of the Corporation of Chennai M.K. Stalin by the State Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) followed allegations of corruption in the construction of 10 flyovers in Chennai.
The arrests were based on a complaint filed by the Corporation Commissioner, J.T. Acharyalu, on June 29. It said that Stalin, the first accused, and Karunanidhi, the second, were responsible for violations of administrative rules and procedures and for corrupt practices in the Rs.115.50-crore project. Nine flyovers have been completed at a cost of Rs.64.28 crores. Stalin has said that these were built well within the estimated cost of Rs.95.5 crores - implying that the Corporation had in fact saved more than Rs.30 crores in the project. It was Gammon India Ltd and L & T's ECC group that carried out the construction of these nine flyovers.
Two Ministers in the Karunanidhi government, K. Ponmudi (Transport) and Ko. Si. Mani (Local Administration), and ten others have been arrested. The ten others are: A.P. Muthusamy and K.A. Nambiar, both former Chief Secretaries; R.S. Sridhar, Chairman, Standing Committee, Taxation and Finance, Corporation of Chennai; A.K. Jagadeesan, Chairman, Standing Committee, Works, Corporation of Chennai; Dr. N.S. Srinivasan and Raja Shankar, Special Representatives to the Mayor; N. Raghavan, Chief Executive, L&T Ramboll Consulting Engineers Limited; M.T. Sethuraman, retired Superintending Engineer, Chennai Corporation; P. Kolappan, former Commissioner, Chennai Corporation; and S. Malathi, former Secretary, Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department.
They were arrested for offences under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 420 (cheating and thereby dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker...) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 13 (2) read with 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The complaint refers to the Rs.366.05-crore Traffic Action Plan (TAP), prepared by the Corporation of Chennai and sanctioned by the State government in April 1997. The TAP included the construction of 12 flyovers and the widening of the old Napier bridge. It is alleged that the guidelines of the Chennai Metropolitan Develop-ment Authority (CMDA), which is responsible for designing and planning the city's infrastructure, for the formation and working of a High-Level Steering Committee to oversee the project were ignored.
The TAP was "prepared (in May 1997) without following traffic engineering principles", alleges the complaint. In particular, it alleges that traffic survey assessments such as volume-capacity ratios were not made in formulating the plan. Further, the consultant, whose duty was primarily to design the project conceptually, played a role in fixing costs for the project, resulting in "abnormally inflated costs". The complaint states that Ponmudi accepted these without any changes, with what it refers to as a "mala fide intention". The composition of the Traffic Improvement Committee (TIC) deviated from the norms prescribed in a Government Order issued in September 1997, the complaint said.
Of the 12 locations for flyovers prescribed in the TAP and later sanctioned by the government, only one was adhered to by the Corporation when it actually built the flyovers. The complaint alleges that the Mayor unilaterally chose eight locations not prescribed by the CMDA, and Ko.Si. Mani and Ponmudi "approved" this deviation. The complaint alleges that the Corporation proceeded with the newly formulated plan before getting the State government's approval.
J.T. Acharyalu, an Indian Administrative Officer, who took over as Chennai Corporation Commissioner on June 19, filed a complaint on Friday, June 29, and a few hours later the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) began the arrests. Acharyalu, who had been suspended by the previous DMK Government, took over as Commissioner replacing Shanmugha Rajeswaran, who was transferred because he did not reportedly fall in line with the Jayalalithaa government. Shanmugha Rajeswaran was Commissioner for about two weeks.
According to the complaint, the consultant for the project was not selected from the list approved by the CMDA. The detailed project report he prepared was not placed before either the TIC or the HSLC. There are also allegations that government engineers, with experience in handling such projects, were not consulted by the civic body. The FIR alleges that the culpability of the Ministers, including the former Chief Minister, arises from their having accorded administrative sanction for the project in such a manner.
According to the complaint, the government incurred a loss of Rs.12 crores on the project mainly because of the "inflated costs". The costs of raw materials for bars for the flyovers, high tensile steel, anti-crash barriers, and anti-corrosion paints were inflated.
Dr. Srinivasan, 70, who is among the arrested persons, is an expert in traffic and transportation. On February 18, 1999, he was appointed honorary Special Representative to the Mayor (Stalin) for constructing flyovers in Chennai in order to ease the traffic congestion. Srinivasan, who took his Ph.D. in a subject relating to the study of highways from a University in West Germany in 1957, had done more than 15 assignments for the World Bank and the United Nations. He introduced the acclaimed four-lane traffic on Anna Salai in Chennai when Jayalalithaa was Chief Minister.
The allegations about the irregularities were first made by the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) in the Chennai Corporation Council in 2000, notably by the Leader of the Opposition, P. Vetrivel (TMC). The allegations gained life after the Opposition parties in the Council submitted a memorandum to Governor M. Fathima Beevi on May 22, listing seven instances of "corruption and irregularities" against the Mayor. They alleged that the Mayor was responsible for losses to the extent of Rs.232 crores to the Corporation. Media reports indicate that the memorandum formed the basis for the investigation by the State Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC).
Reacting to the memorandum, Stalin said that the Corporation's procedures were adhered to and that his regime had saved Rs.30 crores on the project. The tendering process was fair, leading companies had participated in it and the contracts were awarded to the lowest bidder. He also pointed out that the construction equipment for the project were tested at the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and the Anna University.
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