Concern over serious anomalies in development works in historic site of Pathorughat peasants’ uprising
By Mayukh Goswami
Mangaldai: Chief Engineer , PWD (Building) of Assam Government has expressed shock and concern over execution of a development work at the historic site of Pathorughat peasants’ uprising in Darrang district with an administratively approved amount of rupees two crores allegedly without following the necessary departmental norms including the technical sanction of the project . Jyotish Sharma , Chief Engineer , PWD (Building) while talking to a team of delegates of Mangaldai Media Circle , a local scribes body at his office , he expressed about his total ignorance on the whole issue including plan , estimate and tender process of allotment of the contract . He assured the media delegates of conducting an inquiry from his end with the field inspection within a short period . “ I have no knowledge about it . How it can be possible ! I myself will conduct an inquiry and will visit the site within three / four days with my team of officials .” Chief Engineer Sharma opined. It is worth mentionable here that as per the
provisions of the Assam Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRMB) Act, 2005, it has been made mandatory to obtain the technical sanction even before inviting the tender notice, not to speak of allotment of works. But the Building wing of Public Works Department (PWD) allegedly didn’t care for obtaining the technical sanction before inviting tender for construction works.
This serious anomalies has come to the light following the sanction of an amount of Rs. Two crores under Untied Fund (State Specific Scheme) of 2016-17 for construction of Farmers Training Center cum Research Center at historic Pothorughat in Darrang where 140 Krishak Swahids were brutally gunned down by the British on January 28 of 1894. It may be noted here that Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal while attending the Krishak Swahid Divas at Pothorughat in 2017 as the chief guest, had announced to sanction required fund for expansion and beautification of the Swahid Memorial site with a view to transform it into a national monument. Accordingly the state government had sanctioned an amount of Rs. Five Crores to the Agriculture department and Rs. Two Crores under Untied Fund to PWD (B) through the development branch of the DC’s office Darrang.
On receipt of the fund, the officials of the PWD (B) including the Superintending Engineer and Executive Engineer at Tezpur, Assistant Executive Engineer and a junior Engineer at Mangaldai Building Sub Division allegedly chalked out a design where to fulfill their vested interest divided the entire project to fourteen different groups and without obtaining the technical sanction invited the tenders and allotted the works to fourteen number of contractors of their choice keeping the Chief Engineer of PWD (B) quite in dark. As per norms it has been learnt that the amount of Rs. Two crores sanctioned for a single work could not be divided into fragments without the approval of the Chief Engineer.
On the other hand, though there is no provision in the estimate for excavation of the historic graveyard where the British dumped the bodies of all the 140 Krishak Swahid belonging to both the Hindus and Muslims in the single pit , the contractor concerned had excavated the graveyard with a JCB as per the verbal instruction of the site Junior Engineer concern . This information has been recorded in the written letter of the Assistant Executive Engineer, Mangaldai Sub Division of PWD (B) and in the report submitted to the Deputy Commissioner by the Additional
Deputy Commissioner who had already conducted a preliminary inquiry. Various organizations and individuals had requested the district administration to keep the heritage site of mass burial properly preserved as a mark of respect and honour to those unsung 140 Krishak Swahids. In view of the unauthorized excavation of the mass burial ground and gross violation of FRBM Act by the erring officials of the PWD (B), several organizations including Mangaldai Media Circle have demanded the state government and the district administration to take stringent action on the erring officials. Meanwhile Darrang Deputy Commissioner Ghanashyam Dass on Thursday has assured the visiting office bearers of Mangaldai Media Circle to stop the further work and make necessary arrangement to hand over the remaining work to the Chief Engineer and he directed District Development Commissioner Sweety Gogoi Kalita to do the needful.
It may be noted here that on Tuesday last, office bearers of Mangaldai Media Circle namely Secretary Mayukh Goswami, Assistant Secretary Shrawan Jha and Adviser Bhargab Kumar Das met the Chief Engineer of PWD (B) in his office and submitted a memorandum seeking his interference in this gross violation of FRBM Act and in the unauthorized excavation. It may be mentioned here that Dr Himanta Biswa Sharma , the State Finance Minister who also holds the Cabinet portfolio for the PWD Department in the last budget speech announced to allocate fund for a welfare scheme of the State the farmers befitting the 125th death anniversary of the martyrs of the historic Pathorughat peasants’ uprising.
