The Senior Citizens’ Forum of Gandhinagar has demanded a ground level inquiry of the entire pipe-laying work in different places of Brahmapur before clearance of payment to the contractor.
The team should take feedback from the local residents and pay heed to their problems, it said.
The PHED/Watco should display the details of the contractor executing the work on worksite for information of the public, the forum demanded.
There is a serious discontentment among the intellectuals and local public for inordinate delay in concretising the portions of roads dug as the contractor engaged for laying pipelines for supply of drinking water in the city has left the roads in tatters.
The contractor used JCB machine in digging the public roads in several places of the city and soon after laying the pipes, the affected portions of the roads were not repaired for months, causing inconvenience to both pedestrians and the vehicular traffic.
According to reliable sources, the contractor who hails from Paradip area has taken contract for the Rs 7 crore project (through open tender) for completing the pipeline work and its maintenance, reportedly engaged by L&T under the project division/ Watco, Odisha which is being coordinated at the level of Engineer in Chief and UD Department.
However, the locals alleged that the contractor was willfully not caring anybody, nor paid heed to the public request to repair the roads properly.
The local residents asked why the Engineer-in-Chief office and UD Department behave like mute spectators in spite of negligence of the contractor and are reluctant to initiate action against the contractor.
The Watco is a State owned not-for-profit company, entrusted to provide customer centric drinking water supply and sewerage services in efficient, accountable and sustainable manner to urban citizens of more than 20 ULBs including Brahmapur for 24X7 water supply under “Drink From Tap Mission.”
It may recalled here that, one Lalit Mohan Mangaraj, a resident of Sastrinagar 3rd Lane under Gosaninuagaon Police Circle had reportedly submitted a memorandum on January 18 to the BeMC Commissioner, demanding immediate disciplinary and criminal action against L&T and others for gross negligence to public safety and convenience.
Mangaraj then had alleged that L&T in the name of laying PHED pipe lines dug the roads arbitrarily in wee hours without proper plans. Such frequent digging of the roads in Tota Street and Neelakantha Nagar area of Gosaninugaon under new Ward No. 26 had put the road users in great inconvenience.
Yet in another incident, in the name of repairing the pipeline/valve point, one contractor dug the public road in front of Gandhinagar Post office with heaps of mucks lying on the public road. The contractor neither filled the hole nor removed the mucks nearly for a month.
Besides, dirty water of the nearby drain enters into supply water through valve points in pipes making the water contaminated. Only when our correspondent in public interest lodged a complaint with the Watco authorities, the work was carried out overnight.
Notably, replying to the question of Brahmapur MLA Bikram Panda in the Assembly in the matter recently, the State UD Minister stated that the damaged road will be repaired soon by the concerned contractor as per an agreement executed between Watco and the contractor.