Home denies officials took money to clear fencing deal
AJAY SURI

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14: The Union Home Ministry, under attack from Tehelka.com for alleged involvement of some North Block officials for clearing Rs 1,300-crore deal for border fencing and comunications systems, today emphatically denied the report.

According to Tehelka's special correspondent Mathew Samuel, Rs 325 crore were paid to the Ministry officials for getting the deal cleared and handing over the project to an Israeli firm. He claims a senior minister was involved in getting the contract okayed. North Block officials, however, hold that no Israeli company has been approached for the project in the first place. ``Not even a proposal to this effect is there with us,'' they stressed, terming Tehelka's ``disclosure'' as ``absurd, malicious and mischevous.''

Border fencing, say Home Ministry officials, is an ongoing process and currently the work is going on in several areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan and Punjab (all sharing boudary with Pakistan). Similarly, in the North-East, states sharing border with Bangladesh are involved in border fencing.

The only Home Ministry arm involved directly in fencing is the Border Security Force (BSF). In J&K, the BSF has undertaken a Rs 76-crore project for border fencing. And in several places in Rajasthan, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is involved in a similar job.

The entire process of allocation of work or issuance of tenders for border work is handled by a committee consisting of officials from Home Ministry, CPWD, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and local bodies of the concerned area. The file cleared by this committee is okayed by the Home Minister before.

The fact remains that the Home Ministry is flush with funds for border fencing -- often in the excess of Rs 1,000 crore. There is reason for it though, it argued. ``With fences, lighting and pillars often getting damaged, we have to go for their immediate repairs. There is no way we can sit on it for any great length of time. In fact, in most of the areas, the border fencing work is for the past several decades.''

In most of the cases, officials stress, tenders are invited, scrutisined and cleared by the CPWD. ``With involvement of so many bodies in the work, even at local level, it will be very tough if not impossible to grant special favours to anybody in particular,'' they say.

As of today, border fencing is going on mainly in Punjab sector and some areas next to Bangladesh.