SHILLONG, June 25: The opposition TMC on Sunday questioned the state government’s logic behind ordering a magisterial probe into the collapse of a portion of the PA Sangma stadium and pitched for a team of technical expert from the State to unearth the reason behind the collapse.
“How will a magistrate probe into a technical project? Why isn’t the state technical team headed by the level of the Chief Engineer, who knows the soil condition, all the technical aspects go and inquire? Why are you sending a magistrate to inquire on an infrastructure project?” questioned TMC state vice president George B Lyngdoh.
The state government had instituted a magisterial inquiry after a retaining wall of the newly upgraded PA Sangma Stadium in Tura, West Garo Hills, collapsed on Thursday morning
Questioning the logic behind the magisterial probe, Lyngdoh said, “In fact engineers should have gone. Technicalities of constructions will be known only by trained people by professionals so how will a magisterial inquiry probe this (matter) as this is not a law and order issue”.
“This is infrastructure that has tumbled due to corrupt practices and maybe there are compromises in the design, material quality and various other technical failures so you need technocrats,” he added.
Criticising the government for trying to defend the contractors, he said, “In such a time when we have seen infrastructure collapsing, the government is still trying to find another excuse to show. It seems they are trying to defend the contractors by saying that they have not given the contract to Badri Rai”.
“Irrespective of Mr A or Mr B is the contractor, the end result is that a portion of the stadium has collapsed which is what we are seeing before us and that also just few months ahead of the stadium being inaugurated,” he added.
Accusing the government of giving a long rope to such corrupt practices, the TMC leader said the people will lose their trust on the system.
“If this continues, the people’s trust on the system will not be there. Here, it is a very important project which the Chief Minister had personally monitored as it was in the name of an important political figure of the state,” he said.
“Not only have they blemished the name of the political figure but they have also unearthed another corrupt practice in the state,” he claimed.
The TMC vice president said that there are reports that people, who had tried to warn the authorities of the poor quality materials allegedly being used during the construction of the stadium, were threatened.
“If people who are trying to raise red flags are being threatened, who are behind these threats? There is an attempt to cover the corrupt practice and even the ones who want to highlight it are being threatened. Therefore, we have an entire problem before us where there is a strong connivance between groups to ensure that corrupt practices rule the state”.
He asked the government to get to the bottom of the matter concerning the stadium’s partial collapse unlike the case of the Assembly dome collapse “as nothing has come out of it”. “…this time, people will still feel another iconic infrastructure has tumbled and nothing has come out of it,” he remarked.
