A conflict of interest occurs when any entity or individual becomes unreliable because of a clash between personal (or self-serving) interests and professional duties or responsibilities. Such a conflict occurs when a company or person has a vested interest which puts into question whether their actions, judgment, or decision-making can be unbiased. In Meghalaya, it has been a tradition that MLAs/MDCs/Ministers are also contractors and they often take up government contract works such as in roads, bridges and building constructions. If a minister of the State Public Health Department is also a contractor in that Department, will not be guided by profit motives only? Similarly when the Deputy Chief Minister of the state co-owns a construction company will the profit motive not override the quality of the road?
Presently what is causing much heartburn is the shoddy construction of the 16 Km Jowai-Amlarem-Dawki road at a cost of Rs 43 crore. Several groups including the local headmen of the area have formed a Joint Action Committee and threatened to take the company undertaking this work – the Dhar Constructions company to court. Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, Ronnie V Lyngdoh has blamed the State Government for not keeping a close watch on the quality of construction carried out by Dhar Constructions a local construction company owned by the brother of the Deputy Chief Minister, Sniawbhalang Dhar. He claims that the engineers should have been present to oversee the construction work and to certify if it meets with the specification of the State Public Works Department (PWD). In the last few years, Dhar Constructions have won most of the road construction tenders in the State and have also demonstrated that they are incapable of constructing roads that meet the quality outlined by the State PWD. In fact, this is a clear case of conflict of interests but the Government has always looked the other way, because the Dhar family allegedly fund elections in the state and are part of the “high level” that also control coal mining in Meghalaya and have for years now been engaged in illegal coal mining, after it was banned by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2014.
Dhar Constructions had also undertaken the repairs of the Jowai by-pass a couple of years ago but the road is now in a dilapidated condition. The road did not even last a year. Everyone knows this yet the Government continues to award road construction contracts to the same Company because of vested interests. If the Modi Government is accused of granting multi-million dollar contracts to Gautam Adani by violating all norms, can Dhar Constructions get away with what is a clear case of conflict of interests? Should the people of Meghalaya allow this to continue?
