No developmental work, be it a road or a bridge or a canal project, is completed within stipulated time in Odisha. Resultantly, cost estimate goes up, sometimes get manifold, and the State exchequer, which is certainly not robust, bears losses only.
Woes don’t end here. If any work is damaged midway or within defect liability period, the State has not required law either to collect full compensation or to take legal action against erring contractors and engineers.
In case of a damage, the Government can only ask the concerned contractor to repair the work from his pocket. If the contractor doesn’t do it, the Government would do it and collect the amount so spent from the security deposit and EMD from the said contractor.
This is what understood from a reply submitted by Rural Development and Works-in-charge Minister Badrinarayan Patra in response to a question of MlA Krushna Chandra Sagaria in the Assembly.
“Nexus between contractors and engineers is known to all. There is no example that the Government has collected compensation from a contractor toward work damage. It is not understood why the Government doesn’t make a law to keep bank guarantees from contractors against work allotments,” wanted to former MlA Bibhudendra Pratap Das.
Citing some examples, Das said the Nahanga-Talamalharai Raod under Baleswar district’s Khaira block, which was constructed at a cost of `1 crore and completed lately in July 2015, was damaged within six months. Similarly, a under-construction Biju Setu had been caved in Mahanga block, injuring five persons.
Even after 27 years, the Rengali (Samal Barrage) canal works have not been completed. The primary estimate of `233.64 crore was increased to over 1500 crore due to delay, lamented Das.
He said as many as 19 MlAs belonging to all parties had submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister to enact a law to fix life times for every sanctioned work and to keep bank guarantees against such allotments from concerned contractors so that, in case of any damage, loss could be recovered. They also suggested that 90 per cent cost of damages should be collected from contractors and the rest from the concerned engineers.
In response to the MlAs’ demand, the Government has only sit silent directing to examine the suggestion in the Codes Revision Committee and prepare a report by forming a sub-committee.
“If the Government doesn’t enact stringent laws to recover losses from contractors, public money will only be wasted,” he said.