Dimapur, Oct. 5 (EMN): With no visible development on the construction of Pukhungri-Avankhu road project despite releasing 94% of the fund for the said work, Against Corruption and Unabated Taxation (ACAUT) has termed as nothing short of blatant and systematic form of corruption carried out with impunity, without a care or fear of penalty.
Responding to an RTI which was filed against construction of Pukhungri- Avankhu Road project, ACAUT stated that the revelations was nothing short of blatant and systemic form of corruption carried out with impunity, without a care or fear of penalty.
According to the RTI, Pukhungri- Avankhu Road project work was awarded to M/S Vi-u Angami & Sons, the commencement date for the work was January 24 and the projected date for completion was March 2013. The total project cost was INR 2339.33 lakhs (Twenty three crores and thirty nine lakhs), out of which INR 2188.89 (twenty one crores and eighty eight lakhs and eighty seven thousand) was released and sanctioned.
According to the RTI, 94% of the earth work in formation has been completed as on June 2018 and cited reason for the delay in completion “due to un-anticipated hard rock requiring blasting.”
ACAUT stated that the revelation of the RTI was simply shocking as the project, which was supposed to have been finished in early 2013, was barely visible whereas almost 94% of the total project cost has been sanctioned and far away from completion.
“While many reasons would be cited for the delay in the project or the incompletion of it, the fact remains that it is a trend here in Nagaland that construction projects are deliberately stalled and delayed to revise the cost of the project cost,” ACAUT stated in a press release.
ACAUT has termed as a perfect case of blatant corruption practice that has been going on in the state of Nagaland and the root cause for the under development and poor infrastructure in the state.
ACAUT was of the opinion that M/S Vi-u Angami & sons firm should be immediately black listed and stopped from doing any ongoing work projects until a thorough investigation is done.
ACAUT also requested the appropriate authority to initiate an independent inquiry into the murky and blatant case of corruption.
This was stated in a joint statement issued by its chairman Tia Longchar, secretary Hetoi Chishi, and co-chairman Simon Kelio.
