By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Nov 5: The opposition Trinamool Congress accused the NPP-led MDA 2.0 Government of “mortgaging” Meghalaya in the hands of a few contractors who funded their election budget and challenged the government to blacklist Dhar Constructions if it is proven that they were involved in subpar road construction work.
The TMC’s challenge coincides with threats from Jaintia Hills residents, acting through the Joint Action Committee (JAC), to file a lawsuit against Dhar Constructions for allegedly doing subpar construction on the Dawki–Amlarem–Jowai road under NH-206.
“The public has already voiced dissatisfaction with Dhar Constructions’ subpar work. Given the degree of influence the contractor(s) has over the government, it appears that the government is ignoring the complaints,” TMC vice president George B Lyngdoh said.
“If such things have really occurred, then the project has only received a portion of the sanctioned amount, and the remainder must have gone elsewhere,” he stated.
“…maybe to recover the expenses of the extremely expensive elections we’ve witnessed, and this will persist because they’ll need to plunder more in order to spend more in 2028 in addition to having to recover the money from the previous elections,” Lyngdoh said.
He continued: “If the JAC has decided to move the court, this is one avenue from which we can seek justice and draw the attention of people who can give certain direction to the government to open up their eyes and think for the benefit of the people.”
“I am glad that the residents have shown the strength and willingness to highlight such shoddy implementation of projects which not only reeks of corruption but it is a misuse by few who are in authority and are hijacking governance and project implementation for their own interest,” he said.
“If this continues the state’s precious resources will be lost, infrastructure will be compromised and there may come a time when people may lose lives because these profit-mongering companies have compromised on the quality of work,” he said, raising doubts about how long such practises will last.
He warned that the people would ultimately suffer if the state government continued to compromise in this manner.
Lyngdoh questioned whether the road needs to be repaired using funds that were previously awarded to these companies or if new funds must be raised because it defies logic and ethics for the government to reapprove a project that was recently finished.
“There are regulations that state that if a significant repair is completed, there is a window of time in which no further repairs are made for that specific work, so will the regulations be broken?” he inquired.
“After learning about the poor execution of work, will the government dare to blacklist the company?” he questioned.