Hangkhanlian picks Khuga Dam flaws in review meeting ; Change working style, CM advises officials
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 13 2017: Chief Minister N Biren today reviewed the progress of different schemes/projects to be completed within this year by the BJP led coalition Govt .

During the meeting, which was held at the Cabinet Hall of the Chief Minister's Secretariat, N Biren instructed Administrative Secretaries and Heads of Depts to change their working style .

During the meeting, BJP MLA from Churachandpur AC and Minister of Agriculture, Veterinary and Animal Husbandry, V Hangkhanlian drew the attention of the Chief Minister that Khuga Multipurpose Project, which was inaugurated in November 2010, has failed to serve its purpose and people of Churachandpur are yet to get the benefits of the Project .

The review meeting began from 10 am and went on till around 2.30 pm .

Officials of various departments made power-point presentation of various schemes/projects which are targeted to be completed within this year .

Projects pertaining to various departments like Agriculture, Horticulture, Transport, PWD, Forest, RD & PR, IFCD, PHED, MSPCL, MSPDCL, Commerce and Industries and Science and Technology etc were discussed in detail .

Hangkhanlian picks Khuga Dam flaws in review meeting ; Change working style, CM advises officials

The CHief Minister told the officials that no works should be executed in name sake just to enable drawing of fund like it was during the time of the previous Govt.Besides, he also reportedly instructed Administrative Secretaries and HoDs to change their working style to ensure timely completion of projects/schemes .

The CM also reportedly instructed the officials to conduct field visits to various schemes and ensure that the targeted beneficiaries get maximum benefits of the schemes/projects .

Besides giving instruction to form District Level Monitoring Committees to review developmental projects at the district level, the CM also instructed the committees to submit weekly progress report for his perusal .

During the meeting, Agriculture Minister V Hangkhanlian said that the Khuga Multipurpose Project has failed to serve its purpose.

Since the canals of the Project breached at some places, the project has miserably failed to serve the purpose of giving irrigation .

Also, due to poor quality of water supply pipes, the project has failed to give proper water supply to the people of Churachandpur, V Hangkhanlian said .

Other than attracting some picnickers, Khuga Multipurpose Project has miserably failed to serve its purpose, he said .

The Minister urged the CM to repair the canals and fix the water supply pipes so that it benefits residents of Churachandpur .

However, the source did not reveal the response given by the CM in this regard .

It may be mentioned that Khuga Multipurpose Project was sanctioned by the then Planning Commission in July 1980 at an estimated cost of Rs 15 crore.

After a long hiatus, the O Ibobi led Govt revived the project in 2002.The Project is aimed at providing irrigation to about 10,000 hectares of agriculture land, to generate 5 million gallon per day (5 MDG) of drinking water and to generate 1.50 M of power.

The Project was completed after it was revised at an estimated cost of Rs 433.91 crore.

The project was inaugurated and handed over to the public by Sonia Gandhi on November 12, 2010 .

The total cost incurred in Khuga Multipurpose Project reached Rs 461.34 crore by January 2016 .

The source further said that although prior information was given to all Administrative Secretaries and Ministers through their PS/PPS to attend the review meeting held today on time, most of the Ministers, excluding Karam Shyam and Letpao Haokip, turned up for the meeting late .

Some Ministers who turned up for the meeting late admitted that they did not get any prior information about today's meeting.