Tura, April 29: The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Meghalaya Assembly and the state president of the AITC , Charles Pyngrope yesterday joined a team of state officials to inspect the ongoing construction of the Rongjeng Model College.
Charles was accompanied by the additional chief secretary to education, DP Wahlang, Director of School Education and Literacy, Ambrose Marak, deputy commissioner of East Garo Hills (Swapnil Tembe). The inspecting PAC team was also joined by members of the local NGOs and residents of Rongjeng.
The visit yesterday came after continued protests by the NGOs (GSU, FKJGP, ASWA, ASCOR, AAYF and GSMC) who have alleged ‘shoddy construction’ by the contractor. The NGOs led various protests over the College and demanded that the building should be made as per the Detailed Project Report (DPR). The protestors added that the building plan had been changed without any prior notification from any source.
The protests were only called off after assurances from the administration and the education department of a fact finding team visiting the College site at the earliest.
The various complaints to authorities on the matter led to a site inspection though the finding of the inspection is yet to be announced.
Earlier the public accounts committee of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly secretariat had taken note of the complaints by the NGOs and scheduled a visit by officials from the committee created to look into the alleged anomalies on the announced date, April 28. Officials of the education department were also asked to accompany the team.
Meanwhile Rongjeng NGO members hoped that the team would look into the case of sub standard building construction as well as the changes made to DPR and the same is rectified.
“We hope they take the matter seriously and provide us with the college we have been promised. This has been a dream of everyone from the C&RD Block and we wish to see it fulfilled,” said the NGO members.