New Delhi: The proposal for the augmentation and upgrade of Delhi’s sewage treatment plants was proposed on Oct 7, 2021, and it got an in-principle approval from the then water minister, Satyendar Jain, a week later, govt sources said.The processing of the project began in Aug 2021. Meetings were held later that year to discuss the technical specifications and other aspects. Following Jain’s nod in Oct 2021, meetings and decisions in Dec that year culminated in a fresh estimate of Rs 1,546.3 crore for the upgrading of STP capacity from 215 MGD to 297 MGD, they added. On Dec 21 and 23, 2021, Jain, then consultant Ankit Srivastava, and then DJB CEO Udit Prakash Rai attended meetings for the project. The terms of reference were finalised, the sources said.The tender notice was issued in Feb 2022, followed by several corrigendums in April. The technical bids were opened in mid-May 2022, and by the end of the month, the technical bid had been approved, allegedly eliminating competition and paving the way for favoured companies. Jain was arrested in a different case on May 30, 2022. The tenders covered two categories of work, augmentation and upgrade of STPs, and only upgrade work. The investigation found that for projects that only needed upgrades should have been priced lower but the same rate was allegedly charged as for projects involving both augmentation and upgrade, resulting in an alleged financial loss.Jain was arrested in this case Tuesday.Digital evidence indicates that confidential tender conditions and draft documents were shared on the phones of the accused before the tender was issued, govt sources added. The “scams” under the previous Kejriwal govt are now coming to light, chief minister Rekha Gupta alleged Wednesday after the arrest of Jain. AAP Tuesday called the case against Jain “fake”.
