The State Government’s inaction on contractors and engineers for poor road and bridge works undertaken with the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) of the Nabard has raised many eyebrows regarding fair functioning of the Works Department and its top officers.
“In the Kolkata fly-over collapse incident, the West Bengal Government blacklisted the agency, arrested its MD and asked it to give adequate compensation to families of those who were killed and injured within 24 hours. But it is disappointing that the Odisha Government is yet to take any action against the agency of the Jatamundia-Subarnapur bridge which had been collapsed in Agust 2014 injuring many,” alleged Odisha Forest Wood, Agriculture and Building Construction Workers’ Union president Sura Jena.
Jena told this paper that the Government didn’t even conduct a proper probe into the incident to establish how many were injured or killed.
“The agency had engaged labourers from outside the State. Hence, it was not known how many were killed under it,” he pointed out.
Similarly, he alleged that the Works Department has favoured the HES Infrastructure ltd in ‘illegally’ increasing cost of the Trishulia-Cuttak Kathajodi bridge.
The matter too recently came up in the State Assembly during a Budget discussion where Congress MlA Bhujabal Majhi alleged that the design of the bridge was changed only to benefit department Secretary and the contractor.
“The change in design has cost the State Exchequer by `34 crore as the revised estimate granted by the Works Department rose to `128 crore while the original cost was `94.5 crore. But the Minister has in his reply stated that cost was revised at `106.99 crore,” Majhi said and alleged that the deviation between the Minister’s reply and revised estimation establishes nexus between the agency and the department Secretary.
He too alleged that the BJD had taken `5 crore from the concerned agency to hold its anti-Polavaram Samavesh held in New Delhi three years ego.
However, Cuttack-Choudwar MlA Pravat Biswal refuted Majhi’s charge.
“What pains us the most is that the CM has remained silent though crores of rupees have been wasted due to neglects of agencies and department engineers and the Secretary, He should take a cue from the West Bengal CM and take action against the agencies and department engineers and top officers,” Jena demanded.