OUR CORRESPONDENT
TINSUKIA: The Assam Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board, in the name of providing safe drinking water under Tinsukia Municipal Board, has left the residents of various wards with deep anguish after the contractors engaged by the board dug almost all the roads and lanes for laying pipelines in the most unscientific and unplanned manner rendering these roads highly prone to accidents and unsuitable for pedestrians and small vehicular traffic to manoeuvre.
With the rainy season in the offing, the roads will turn from bad to worse unless corrective measures are taken immediately. While laying the pipelines, JCBs were used to dig from the middle of the road that uprooted the newly laid paver blocks and partially damaged the metalled roads. The scheme was launched during the Congress regime under Swajal Jal Scheme and in later phases, the BJP merged the scheme with AMTUT and incorporated it into New Water Supply Scheme under 5th Assam State Finance Commission. While the Housing and Urban Affairs Department remained the implementing agency, the Town & Country Planning Department under respective municipal boards is the monitoring agency.
Chairman of Tinsukia Municipal Board Pulak Chetia said that several contractors were assigned to implement the scheme with renovation of roads damaged during digging. The ward numbers 1, 3 & 7 are mostly affected, said Chetia. As the schemes overlapped, the question of accountability remains a big question. As AMRUT (door-to-door water supply scheme) is yet to be launched and supposedly after pipelines are laid, the condition of the roads is likely to worsen further. Chetia, who assumed the office recently, is now facing public ire. While TMB is exploring fund sources, the contractors on the other hand opined that it is inadequate to repair and restore with the allotment amount of Rs 36 lakh which was sanctioned 15 years back. Chetia viewed that it would require a few crores to renovate and restore the road as the magnitude of damage is very high.
Now the tax payers of Tinsukia are facing the brunt of inter-departmental loggerheads with little relief expected during the forthcoming rainy season.
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