TURA: Contractors from Garo Hills under the banner of the All Garo Hills PMGSY Contractors’ Union have submitted a complaint to the West Garo Hills deputy commissioner citing various grievances being faced by them.
In their complaint the contractors informed that they were facing difficulty in completing their respective projects in time as there is acute shortage of materials like stones, chips and boulders due to illegal export of the same to Bangladesh.
“For those with projects in Gambegre Block, the source of materials according to the DPR is cited as Deku-Sangknigre areas. For South West and West Garo Hills, Pipulbari is cited as the source of materials. However, at both places, the materials are not available due to illegal export and whatever is available is priced exorbitantly,” they said.
The contractors sought immediate stoppage of illegal export so as to enable them to complete their work in time. They also proposed that a total of ten quarries for supply of materials are set aside for PMGSY projects, whose contractors would operate with all the necessary documents in order.
Informing that they frequently face harassment from the police while transporting materials to their respective sites, the contractors requested the DC to come up with some sort of mechanism or special permit to verify the materials being transported for PMGSY projects to ensure the smooth progress of works.
A request for extraction and transportation of Granular Sub-Base (GSB) was made by the contractors which according to them is an important component of the road construction work.
Further, the contractors also sought setting up of a mechanism within the norms of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for all quarries to operate with proper documents as well as to stop rampant extraction of materials for export and to only allow extraction of the same for local use upon production of necessary papers.
