Sonkatch (Dewas district): State government’s much hyped Nal Jal Yojana is mired in controversy with complaints of incomplete work in Gandharvpuri village gram panchayat that falls under Sonkatch tehsil.
Amid tall claims of local authorities of project completion, the gross negligence in the work is not only taking a toll on state government’s mega project that ensures the supply of tap water at every doorstep in villages but it has also proved to be wastage of taxpayers hard-earned money.
Villagers in Gandharvpuri panchayat said they are facing problems due to carelessness in tank construction and pipeline laying work as concerned agency dug roads at many places posing risk of accidents. Pipelines too have been damaged in the process. Villagers claimed that constructor dug roads all over the village.
Whenever villagers raise issue before public health engineering department sub engineer, the officer tells them to contact contractor who is no where to be seen in the village.
The tank construction work was inaugurated by the then state public work department minister and Sonkatch MLA Sajjan Singh Verma on December 12, 2019. Nearly a month later, construction of tank costing Rs 2.48 crore started on January 8, 2020. Along with this, pipeline work and tubewell digging work also began.
Water tank in Gandharvpuri |
But work got stuck after some time. Villager Narendra Kumar Jhala said roads of entire village have been dug in last five months, which posed grave problems for commuters in rainy season. “Contractor is not paying attention to this and nor do PHED officials listen to us. Incomplete work may cause accidents in village,” he added. Sanjay Goswami, BJP mandal vice president (Sonkatch rural) admitted that the way roads are dug by contractor is causing problems in the village.
Technical flaws have also surfaced. For instance, the contractor has laid connection line above the mainline. In many places, the connection line has been placed on upper surface of the ground. This also poses problems for commuters.
When contacted, Sonkatch PWD sub divisional officer Bhagwat Mahajan said department did not allow anyone to dig road by anyone. Department will send a notice to PHED officer and ask them to repair the road. When the matter was brought before Dewas MP Mahendra Solanki, he said he will look into the matter and will talk to PHED officials about it.
