TURA: In what can be termed sheer arrogance of power and misusing government authority, the Secretary of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC), Rikse R Marak, blatantly violated official rules by dismantling culverts along an entire stretch of the public road allegedly without even seeking any permission from the Public Works Department (PWD) at Tura.
In response to this blatant violation of the laws by this state civil service officer, the PWD has halted any further dismantling and have decided to issue a notice directing her to either reconstruct the culverts or pay compensation for this criminal offence.
The dismantling of the culverts allegedly began on Monday along the main road leading up from Ringrey market to Upper Chandmari where the residence of the accused officer is.
Seeing the dismantling taking place in the morning, people from the locality alerted the PWD officials who dispatched a team to halt the destruction. It is alleged that the Council Secretary was allegedly trying to construct a direct approach into her home.
“There was no permission sought from our department to break or dismantle the culverts. It was a case of public property being destroyed. As soon as we got the information about the incident we rushed our team and stopped the work,” informed PWD officials from Tura.
“We are sending her a letter asking her to either reconstruct the culverts or pay the fine as compensation for the damage to public property,” added a senior PWD official.