Shillong, May 23: The collapse of the dome of the new Assembly building at Mawdiangdiang on Sunday is only a tip of the iceberg of the rot that lies beneath the willy nilly functioning of the present NPP led government under Chief Minister Mr. Conrad Sangma and his Deputy Mr. Prestone Tynsong.
The collapsed of the Dome cast serious doubts about the real intentions of the government and the officers who are tasked to carry out infrastructure work and other projects. In fact, the people of the State must thank the rain Gods for helping expose the pathetic quality of work in government projects which has been okayed by the present government to contractors of questionable repute.
“We are now seeing the actual state of affairs of our roads, buildings and bridges which are cracking and now the prestige of the seat of governance is at stake.” This is infact extremely shameful as never in the history of the State has any infrastructure which houses people’s representatives have been comprised by any government in the past.
“Take the old Assembly building for example, it still is a strong structure or even the present makes shift building, but now we have people in the government who are willing to sell the reputation of the State.”
The Congress party alleged that the poor quality of work in government projects have left the deputy Chief Minister and the Executive Engineer (PWD, Building) with no other choice to but to play shifting the buck game or find lame excuses.
Soon after leakages and flooding of the ISBT premises, Deputy Chief Minister PrestoneTynsong refrained from finding flaws with the contractors but fixed the blame on the officers responsible, saying they would be taken to task and we are yet to see any action on the same, then came the collapse of the Assembly dome on Sunday
The Executive Engineer of the PWD (Building), Ransom Sutnga said the dome design was too heavy for the structure which subsequently led to this incident, but this design has been vetted by non other than one of the Best Engineering Institution of the country, IIT-Rourkee.
It is also understood that as per the tender clause, there was no scope of subcontracting, but it is evident, the qualifying firm, UPRNN Ltd. had subcontracted the work to BRC Ltd., a construction based company from Assam, which has got no experience in Dome Structure building and this firm is executing the work.
The ease of shifting the blame to IIT-Rourkee will not fair well with the reputation of the state Department and any lay man can understand that the problem lies with the quality of construction which clearly indicates that the officer responsible is only shying away from his responsibility and allowing rampant poor quality of construction and unprofessional execution of work, maybe he is too busy pleasing his political masters and build up is own political career.
The Congress party said that such statements clearly reflects the kind of favouritism and blatant corrupt dealings which are underway while handing out government projects.
The contractor at the ISBT is a ruling party worker whereas the Executive Engineer is a prospective candidate of the ruling party and he has been seen busy campaigning from North Shillong while also holding on to his government job.
He should be immediately suspended from his responsibilities; there must be an independent legal scrutiny by a sitting judge of the High Court to probe all government projects which have resulted in such problems.
Further, work on the new Assembly premises has to be stopped immediately and a reputed competent agency to be entrusted to check the quality of construction and thorough safety audit to be made before further construction.
It is time that the people of the State must know what is going on inside this government and how the State exchequer is being robbed in broad daylight and those responsible are getting away scot free.
More strikingly, in all of these, the deafening silence of Chief Minister ConradSangma makes such incidents all the more murkier. He is more busyin Casinos and procuring land for a “green airport,” ignoring the existing infrastructure and land that has been acquired for expanding the airport.
Surely, there is more than that meets the eye in all of these. The question to ask is whether all of this, is a way of ensuring that ruling party has its bags full and come the next election, willgo to any extent, even if it’s about selling the reputation of the State and its prestige said Mr. PN Syiem working President of the MPCC.
