A visibly embarrassed Sabhadhipati, Shampa Dhara today said: “Our engineers inspected the road today and tomorrow we have convened a meeting at Zilla Parishad to review the status and quality of work of the roads under construction across the district.”
Photo:SNS
In just 24 hours – a metal road stretch laid against an expenditure worth more than a crore of rupees surprisingly vanished to the blue as the local children found it a fun uprooting the bitumen coat at once, which has kicked off row in Khandaghosh at the home turf of the Burdwan (East) Zilla Parishad Sabhadhipati.
A visibly embarrassed Sabhadhipati, Shampa Dhara today said: “Our engineers inspected the road today and tomorrow we have convened a meeting at Zilla Parishad to review the status and quality of work of the roads under construction across the district.”
Barely a fortnight back, the residents of Math Nasipur in neighbouring Jamalpur block had erupted in protest and had stopped work of a road as the bitumen surface started getting cracked ruthlessly.
Advertisement
The work for 2.5 km road connecting Kapsit, Shyamadanga and Bariseli villages under the Prime Minister’s Gramin Sadak Yojna has seen 60 percent of completion and currently the work was in progress at Shyamadanga village –the native place of Dhara – the Sabhadhipati. The local residents on Monday morning saw that the village children were ‘relishing’ the easy pulling up of the stretch where the work, according to Sourabh Mukherjee– a contractor’s supervisor: “Had completed on Saturday.” The Zilla Parishad allocated Rs 1.20 Cr for the road, incidentally.
This immediately triggered off sensation and the seniors assembled the spot and stopped further work alleging poor quality materials were being used in the work. Protestors holding placards further erupted in protest today. Agitators–Sufi Badre Alam, Gazon Hazra alleged: “Even the kids can pull up the bitumen and macadam using little fingers. The quality of work then can be assessed easily. We suspect pumping out of huge ‘cut-money’, which compelled the contractor to compromise with the work quality.” The villagers today forwarded a petition to the DM, Burdwan (East) demanding his immediate intervention.
Advertisement
