Jharkhand minister pulls up DVC chairman

By State Bureau

The Damodar Valley Corp (DVC) is completely undermining Jharkhand, according to state industry & forest minister Sudhir Mahato.

The minister also alleged that DVC chairman Ashim Barman was misusing the corporation's funds.

In a letter handed over recently to the Union energy minister Sushil K Shinde, Mahato, who is also one of the two Jharkhand deputy chief ministers, has demanded removal of the DVC chairman as well as a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the 'gross irregularities' committed by him.

Mahato said for every 100 recruited by the corporation, 98 belonged to West Bengal while only two were from Jharkhand.

In the letter written to Shinde, Mahato said he fails to understand how DVC thermal power projects of 1,000mw each, which will come up at Mejia, Durgapur, Koderma and Raghunathpur, have been estimated to cost Rs 4,800 crore each, when a 500mw thermal unit in Bokaro is coming up at just Rs 1,600 crore and the Haryana and Rajasthan governments are erecting 1,200mw thermal power units at a cost of around Rs 3,800 crore each.

"I don't understand why there should be such a huge disparity between a 1,000mw and a 500mw project," said Mahato.

The Jharkhand minister has also alleged several other irregularities in various contracts/projects undertaken by DVC. He said he would like the venue of the board meetings of the corporation to alternate between West Bengal and Jharkhand in the future.

Meanwhile, Mahato said his ministry recently sent a list of 14 projects to the central government that got delayed as papers related to their 'forest land' clearance were kept pending by the previous NDA government in the state.

The minister hoped action taken by the state's forest department now would pave the way for quicker implementation of the projects. Among the projects held up for clearance are NTPC's 2,000mw project, DVC's 1,000mw project in Koderma, Power Finance Corp's 4,000mw super thermal project at Tilaiyya, the SEZ and toll bridge at Jamshedpur, the Deoghar-Dumka and the Deoghar-Koderma railway lines.