Construction company’s shoddy work resented, proper compensation not paid

From a Correspondent

Biswath Chariali, Feb 9: The recent work of the construction company engaged in the four-laning process of the tiol Highway 15 from by-pass end of Biswath Chariali to Gohpur has brought threat to the lives of the passersby along the NH-15 in Biswath district, local people alleged.

The company has already dug out a huge portion of the edge of the existing highway with a view to widen it, which has caused much inconvenience to people. The digging of the road has made it very rrow in most of the places.  M/s T K Engineering Consortium Private Limited of Aruchal Pradesh was entrusted the job of four-laning the highway. Frequent road accidents have taken place in the highway.

The slow pace of work is the main reason behind these accidents, local organizations alleged. Several organizations including AJYCP, AAGSU, AAMSU and AATSA undertook a series of agitation programmes recently in protest against the alleged apathy of the company and administration.  They said the company came to the limelight last year also when it had tried to construct a dyke across the heavily-flowing River Borgang during the rainy season to construct a second bridge (a part of the ongoing four-laning project) over the river. However, bowing before public pressure, the company had to abandon the construction at that time.

On the other hand, the prelimiry activities have been undertaken by the said company for the four-laning of the NH-15 from Sadharu point here towards Chatiya. However, local people allege that a good number of irregularities have been made by the authorities concerned such as non-payment of compensation in a proper manner to the affected people whose land was requisitioned, frequent change of policies in case of requisition of land, refusal of compensation to the roadside small shopkeepers and the poor people residing in the government land for quite a long time. The affected people also allege that only a small amount of money has been proposed to pay the affected people by the administration in the undivided Sonitpur district whereas in some districts like Dibrugarh, the amount is very high. They demanded government intervention in this respect.