Firm denies Saubhagya meddling

SHILLONG, July 12: Under fire over the alleged irregularities in Saubhagya scheme and other related projects in the Power department, the Satnam Global Infrastructure Ltd has asserted that it is not working for the state’s coalition government but only executing the works assigned to it.
The Director of the firm, Himanshu Jain refuted allegations that he is the one running the government and the Power department.
“I am neither a government authority nor have the powers to run the government,” Jain told The Shillong Times on Monday.
He said his company has been working in Meghalaya since 2016, executing different projects from much before the installation of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government.
“As many as 2,300 villages in the state have been electrified under the Saubhagya scheme in the last year and a half but nobody writes or speaks about it,” Jain said, pointing out that Saubhagya is a Central government scheme and his firm was awarded the work following a tendering process.
“We were L1 (lowest) bidder and got the tender. We executed the work after taking materials from the authorised vendors,” Jain said.
Asked about non-electrification of 30,000 households, he said the firm had to lay the line for electrification according to the scope of work and the Power department had to electrify the households according to the scope of work.
Jain said there were some areas in South Garo Hills where materials had to be carried by hand. The execution of work in such far-flung areas entails huge expenses, he added.