Questions raised as tender for Kudwa biodiversity park in Gondia floated before funds were sanctioned

A major controversy has erupted over development works at the biodiversity park at Kudwa, on the outskirts of Gondia city. The matter is widely discussed in administrative circles. The park was for years a picture of extremely slow progress and neglect, but work there has suddenly picked up "bullet train" speed. Local residents are surprised and deeply suspicious.

According to the information available, an advertisement for tenders was published on February 25 this year in a newspaper that reaches very few people. It covered tenders for 20 development works, of which 15 were for the Kudwa biodiversity park alone. Notably, the advertisement did not say where the funds for these works had been sanctioned from or under which scheme the works were being carried out.

About five months later, under a Government Resolution (GR) issued on July 23, a fund of Rs 2.00 crore was officially received for the Kudwa park from the state scheme. This has raised a direct and serious question: how did the Forest Department run the tender process in February, before the formal sanction of government funds?

Local people are also talking about a claim that most of the work at the park had already been completed by the Social Forestry Department before the Covid pandemic. Suspicion is growing that the same old works may now be shown as new on paper to siphon off the newly received funds.

The transparency of the tender has also been questioned. In this offline tender floated in Gondia district, no local Gondia contractor got the work. Instead, it was given to a contractor from Wadsa in neighbouring Gadchiroli district. It is alleged that the entire exercise was carried out in the name of an offline tender to benefit one particular contractor.

For years, work at the park was so sluggish that local nature lovers and residents mocked it as a "perfect example of a tortoise's pace". Soil and bricks dumped at the park lay in the same place for years. Children who were small when the park was announced have grown up to marriageable age, yet the work remained incomplete.

But for the past few days the park's fortunes have suddenly turned. Cement concrete work is being finished at night under large floodlights. Ready-made artificial lawn is being brought in overnight and laid in place of dried-up trees, and a fresh coat of paint is being applied over dust-covered benches before the earlier wet paint has dried.

Probing the reason for this sudden speed is bringing up startling information. It is being said that the entire development work is controlled, directly or indirectly, by Forest Department officials, who are themselves overseeing the work as contractors. Citizens are angry at this case of the "protector turning predator".

Local residents allege that the works being hurriedly completed at night are an attempt to cover up corruption. They say the picture emerging is of government funds being openly disposed of through the use of substandard material.

Angered by all this, a concerned local citizen has filed an official complaint with the relevant higher-level administrative authority, demanding a thorough inquiry into the entire irregularity. The complaint has caused a stir in the administration, and it is hoped that the truth about the corruption behind the "bullet train" speed will soon come out.