Jharkhand rural development and parliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam informed the Assembly on Monday that a case would be lodged in the irregularities in appointment of Singapore-based consultant Meinhardt for Ranchi’s sewage and drainage project within a few months.

The reply came to a query put forth by Jamshedpur East MLA Saryu Roy during the question hours of the ongoing budget session of state Assembly on Monday on the delay in registering FIR against accused in the Meinhardt irregularities despite anti-corruption bureau (ACB) report indicting them.

“Several people are involved in the Meinhardt irregularities case and the ACB, which is probing the case, has found the reply of only a few persons, the rest are yet to come. Even the then state urban development minister Raghubar Das (erstwhile chief minister and current BJP national vice-president) is also an accused in the case. All facts are being checked in a sequence and this is causing delay. We will be getting replies from others soon. Action would be taken against the accused within two-three months,” said Alam.

Chief minister Hemant Soren acting on complaints by the Jamshedpur East MLA had ordered ACB to conduct a probe into the irregularities in November 2020 and the preliminary report of ACB investigation officer was submitted in July 2021.

However, Das in a media conference in Jamshedpur in June 2021 after getting notices from ACB had termed the entire issue of irregularities over Meinhardt aimed at seeking political mileage.

“Some leaders are trying to seek political mileage out of the issue. Since 2005 there has been only accusation and nothing else in this case. Several governments had come and gone in between. The consultant was paid in 2011 on Jharkhand High Court order and Arjun Munda was the then chief minister and Hemant Soren was the finance minister,” Das had said while demanding an impartial probe into the allegation.

Das had said that probe agencies should try to find out who was canvassing for the company whose consultancy was rejected and awarded to Meinhardt.

“The government in 2003 had given the task to prepare Preliminary Project Report (PPR) for sewerage and drainage in Ranchi to ORG MARG at Rs 3 crore. The agency had submitted the PPR to the state government in 2005 so that any necessary alteration can be incorporated in the final detailed project report (DPR). However Das, the then state urban development minister, cancelled the contract of ORG MARG and took out a global tender for appointment of new consultant,” Roy had alleged in 2020.

Roy had alleged before media that instead of 3 crores, Meinhardt was appointed for a cost of Rs 24 crore and no action was taken on the report of Assembly committee, five engineer-in-chiefs and technical cell of vigilance bureau, all of which claimed that the appointment of the consultant was not as per norms

Later in the day, chief minister Soren assured that appointment of chairperson in quasi-judicial bodies, information commission and appointments in boards, corporation and regulatory bodies could not take place due to technical hurdle.

“There is a constitutional binding of the presence of the leader of the opposition in the committee which decides on such appointments. The process is on and we will soon fill the vacancies,” assured Soren to a question raised by Bokaro BJP MLA Biranchi Narayan.

Cabinet minister Mithilesh Thakur, while adding to the reply, blamed BJP for this situation.

“They are not able to announce a leader of Opposition from their own party and are relying on hired leaders which is leading to such a situation,” said Thakur in an imminent gesture at Babulal Marandi who has been made leader of Opposition by BJP but is yet to be declared as that by the Assembly speaker as he was elected on JVM ticket and joined BJP after Assembly poll results in 2019.

The speaker is seeking the opinion of the legal department on the appointment of the leader of the opposition.

Soren, also replying to the question, assured that the government is conducting a study of all backlog vacancies in ST/SC quota across state and would soon take a decision on filling up this backlog.