SHILLONG, Jan 9: Cabinet minister, in-charge of PHE department, Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar, has cautioned concerned officials to act responsibly in ensuring quality of materials
used in the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), and that work is not compromised.
The minister also stressed that if anybody is found being irresponsible, the department will initiate action.
“We do not support supply of inferior quality material and while it is difficult to check each and every pipe, we want to ensure that people who are responsible to check the quality they should work hard and ensure that the quality is maintained,” said Tongkhar.
Talking about the recent inquiry ordered after pressure groups unearthed the alleged inferior quality GI pipes in the implementation, he said, “Enquiry has been constituted let it complete.”
Stating that he does not want such instances to recur, Tongkhar requested the officers at the site to monitor the quality and put in extra effort to check. “If anybody is found to be irresponsible it will be the responsibility of the department to take action,” he added.
It may be mentioned that earlier members of the Khasi Students’ Union North Khasi Hills District, while conducting a surprise inspection at the office of the Executive Engineer of Public Health Engineering (PHE), Umsning Sub Division, had detected a truck-load of alleged substandard pipes being supplied by the Kolkata-based company, Jindal India Limited.
Notably, the Union had also written a petition to the Deputy Commissioner of Ri-Bhoi district demanding a magisterial inquiry into the matter. It had also stated that if the Deputy Commissioner of Ri-Bhoi did not act, the Union would not hesitate to push for a thorough investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to unearth the alleged scam in supply of substandard pipes in Ri-Bhoi as well as the state.
The PHE Minister had then admitted that some of the GI pipes supplied by Kolkata-based Jindal (India) Limited meant for the JJM in Meghalaya weighed less and the department had already sent a letter to the supplier on December 6 last year asking them to replace those pipes.