Cuttack: Taking up a petition over alleged substandard work of the under-construction Jatni flyover, the Orissa High Court Wednesday directed the Vigilance department to take the footages of CCTV cameras installed near the construction site into the purview of investigation.
Justice BK Nayak has directed the vigilance to include an expert member in their team while examining the CCTV footages. The vigilance was also asked to take the views of the expert under the purview of the investigation. The court will take up the case for hearing after three weeks.
During Wednesday’s hearing, the vigilance had submitted a report to the court as per the earlier direction. In the report, the vigilance mentioned that a team of experts from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela are inquiring into the alleged substandard work of the flyover being constructed at a cost of `55 crore. The final probe report will be submitted once the expert team submits its report.
Notably, Kudiari market traders’ federation president Sudarshan Sundarray and secretary Pradipta Baliarsingh had moved the HC alleging poor quality work of the flyover. The petitioners had alleged that inferior quality rods were used in the piers of the under-construction bridge. Though the executive engineer of the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department and other officials visited the construction site, no action was taken in this regard.
The traders later lodged a complaint with the vigilance. The vigilance had also conducted inquiry into the allegations of poor quality work, but did not take any action against the contracting agency.
Later, the traders filed a petition in the HC. The petitioners had appealed to the court to order a vigilance probe and action against the contracting firm.
During further hearing, the petitioners had raised questions over the vigilance probe. The petitioners contended that the irregularities would be exposed if the CCTV footages are taken into consideration. They also requested the court to direct the vigilance to do so.
PNN
