Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday came down heavily on deputy commissioners especially Dibrugarh and Kamrup Metro districts after two big road accidents were reported in the state, of late.
CM Sarma during a virtual conference (VC) with all the DCs has directed them to take strict action against the contractors or persons involved in keeping the dug-up pot holes open and leaving it unattended, thus, causing hindrance to the public.
“Someone has to take the responsibility; there is an incident of loss of life, a person had died, why was the contractor not arrested?” questioned the chief minister to Dibrugarh Deputy Commissioner Biswajit Pegu.
CM Sarma has directed all the DCs to fix up all the dug-up pits across all the districts by Monday.
“If there is any ongoing work going on in the dug-up pits, there should be proper barricading with bamboo and a red flag, otherwise start restoration work immediately on priority,” said the chief minister.
Taking on the Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup Metro District Administration, Pallav Gopal Jha, CM Sarma queried about the dug-up pits for ongoing work on two drainage systems near Guwahati’s Ulubari locality.
“Once there is a heavy downpour overnight, the road near Ulubari will come under water. How people will distinguish that there is a hole? Or there is a drainage work going on? At least the Admin of the Kamrup Metro should have shown some sensitivity to complete the task before the flood at any point of time. If not, the work should have been carried out under proper barricading,” added CM Sarma.
The chief minister also rebuked the PWD department official (Kamrup Metro District) who was also present in the meeting for not completing the drainage work for the last couple of years despite repeated orders.
“Few days back there was a road accident incident in Guwahati due to a pot hole in the middle of the road, a day before a similar incident was reported in Dibrugarh, tomorrow there will be another such incident in some other part of the state. Do we need to wait for an incident to happen to react?” questioned the chief minister to the PWD official.
The chief minister strongly claimed that due to this lackadaisical attitude of the government officials, citizens of the state blame the state government for their losses.
Further, the chief minister has asked the DCs to take action based on the complaints lodged by the public or the concerned citizens.
He also warned all the DCs and other officials that from now onwards there will be no departmental action rather there will be direct action from the police, if such incidents are repeated again.