A review meeting on the status of river embankments was held on Thursday under the chairmanship of the Higher Education Minister Ananta Das here.
MP RK Jena, MlAs Aswani Patra , Nityananda Sahu, Parsuram Dhada, Sukanta Nayak, ZP resident Nibedita Mohanty, district Collector Pramod Das and SP Niti Sekhar among others were present.
Das while stressed on the repair and strengthening of weak embankments of rivers, particularly of the Subarnarekha before the monsoon season, several elected representatives pointed out that the work couldn’t be undertaken due to shortage of stones and chips, attributed to the closure of quarries following direction of the National Green Tribunal.
They maintained that since there was paucity of stone materials, the strengthening work couldn’t be completed before the scheduled time period. In the reply, Das advised the individuals and the organisations, who were having work orders for various Government works, to apply the competent authorities for the quarry permission.
Das also asked the officials to take stringent action against truckers who were transshipping stones and materials illegally outside the district. Besides Sub Collector Sadar Bhabataran Sahu, the officials of the PWD, RD, irrigation and drainage were present during the discussion.