Jajpur: The state government’s plan to supply drinking water from the Brahmani river to 52 villages in Sukinda mining area of Jajpur district has gone haywire pushing the locals to complain with the Lokayukta alleging sub-standard works. The mega drinking water project was taken up with funds worth Rs 101.24 crore sanctioned by Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC). Residents of Sukindagarh panchayat — Amalendu Behura, Satyajit Das, Tushar Ranjan Das, Hamid Khan, Khirod Nayak and Susant Kumar Mohanta — alleged substandard work as the project has gone haywire and the pipelines laid for the project popping out in most places. They further alleged that Nagarjun Construction Company, a private consultancy agency that was implementing the project, is responsible for the sub-standard works.
Owing to undue favour shown to the firm by the departmental officials, the agency has used sub-standard materials in the construction works and laid the pipelines without properly digging the ground. However, the agency has been paid the bill as department officials termed the project works as satisfactory. The residents suspect that heavy kickbacks have exchanged hands in the implementation of the project as they lodged complaints with the chief executive officer (CEO) of OMBADC as well as with the district Collector and the state Lokayukta. Drinking water supply is a priority area where OMBADC funds are spent.
Accordingly, Rs 235.9 crore was sanctioned for three projects in the mining-hit Sukinda region of Jajpur district. Accordingly, a plan outlay of Rs 79.85 crore was made for the Sukinda-1 project for mining-affected Kaliapani and adjoining 24 villages, Rs 54.81 crore for the Sukinda-2 project for 19 villages and Rs 101.81 crore for the Sukinda-3 project for 52 other villages. The Rural Water Supply & Sanitation (RWSS) department has claimed that drinking water supply has been made available to the concerned villages after the completion of the first and second projects. However, locals have alleged that the agency’s shoddy implementation of the project using sub-standard materials is the reason behind the delay in water supply. According to the complaint filed before the Lokayukta, HDP pipes of 90 mm and 110 mm have been laid under the ground. The pipes are required to be laid by digging the ground for a metre but the pipes have been laid at many places by digging only a foot deep.
As a result, pipelines have popped out of the ground at many places. The agency has siphoned off crores of government funds by making false claims that the pipes have been laid one metre below the ground. The engineers’ authority spotted these irregularities during supervision. Acting on its report, the engineer-in-chief in his letter-7228, dated August 28, 2019 directed the superintendent engineer of Cuttack RWSS Circle to visit the spot and take necessary steps in this regard. The engineers’ authority also found that the steel items used in the project were sub-standard and informed the RWSS department. Accordingly, the engineer-in-chief of RWSS in a letter-6033, dated July 15, 2019 directed the consultancy agency to remove all steel items from the construction work. However, the agency managed to take some departmental officials into confidence and implemented the project in a shoddy manner. When contacted, Chief Engineer Motilal Tiwari of the RWSS department, who visited the spot two days back for an inquiry, said necessary steps would be taken after the availability of the probe report.