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Residents get into the act, cry
foul over bad job
WSN Network
Pathankot: This
is the kind of story that does not make it to the newspaper pages in
Punjab.
People's action is normally relegated to sidelines while statements
but one or the other politicians get prime place in media.
After a local
contractor questioned the quality of work done by the Drainage
Department in Chakki and Ujj rivers and sought a CBI probe into it,
residents of the area have challenged the working of the contractors
involved and the officials supervising them.
They have shot
off a letter to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, claiming that
the Irrigation Minister had done precious little to probe the matter
for reasons best known to him.
Residents
claimed that several acres of fertile land along Chakki river gets
washed away every year despite the enormous funds being spent by the
department to construct spurs. The waters of Chakki river had almost
reached the highway, thus indicating that the quality of work was
poor, resulting in losses to the state exchequer.
A stone crusher
owner, Harpreet Singh, said the foundation of the stone spurs were
not laid 8 feet below the water level, as per the norms. “Only some
of the spurs run 4 feet deep, while the rest stand at water level.
These spurs are unlikely to withstand the fury of the next monsoon,”
he said.
Harpreet said
the department was deliberately using small stones to build the
spurs in order to save on the cost of transporting big stones. He
said the wire used to tie the stones was developing rust. “The
repeated allotment of works is the first choice of officials,” he
alleged.
26 November
2008
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