BJP team inspects
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 03 2012:
A team of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by its zonal organising secretary and North East in-charge P Chandrasekhar Rao today inspected ongoing works of the Loktak Lake phumdi clearance project.
Chandrasekhar Rao, accompanied by party's State unit media Affairs secretary L Basanta Sharma, executive member Kumarjit and Policy Working Group member Premananda, surveyed work activities at Thanga area of the Lake as well as on the Ningthoukhong side.
Upon inspection of machinery stationed at the 5/9 Gorkha Rifles camp in Ningthoukhong, the national party leader observing three defective hydraulic excavators laying there expressed awe that unreliable machines are being used for the project for which crores of rupees are being spent.
The Rs 228 crore phumdi clearance project is being undertaken under the O ibobi Singh-led Government with funding from the Government of India's Special Plan Assistance.
With reference to the project's work order which specified that only a marginal amount of phumdis may be retained and the same preserved with the support of bamboo poles, the BJP leader pointed out that inspite of Rs 1.32 crore provision specially for the bamboo component to protect the 'preserved' floating biomass only 5-10 bamboo poles were visible.
Alleging mis-utilisation of public money, Chandrasekhar Rao said that as BJP seriously views the matter the issue would be placed before the Rajya Sabha for which MP and party spokesperson Prakash Javedkar had already tabled a notice.
Contending that huge project funds are being siphoned off by the Government in the name of hiring heavy machinery from the Loktak Development Authority without effective or proper execution of the project works, he also affirmed that BJP will continuously work to expose all misdemeanours of the Congress Government in Manipur.
Branding the ibobi Singh-Government as a group of looters, Chandrasekhar posed as to why the CM is not disclosing who owns K Pro Infra Work company, the project implementing agency.
Disagreeing with the State Government's move to hand over investigation of the project to a committee of officers, he demanded that the task of probing the project activities be assigned to a committee headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court with special auditor(s) of India's Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) as its member(s).
As a part of the BJP's campaign to save the Loktak Lake and Manipur State the party will launch awareness programmes on diverse issues at the earliest, he added.