Jirang MLA Sosthenes Sohtun has backed the Education Department’s line on the cracks in the building of a new college in Patharkhmah, saying that they are not major.
A week after reports in a newspaper alluded to shoddy construction as the cause of the cracks in the Model Degree College, which has yet to open, Sohtun – a member of the ruling National People’s Party – inspected the site today. He was accompanied by a senior consultant of the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), which sanctioned the project at a cost of Rs 11 crore.
The newspaper painted the cracks as another example of poor construction in Meghalaya under the current government, along the lines of the leaky Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT) and collapsed dome of the new Assembly building. However, the government said that, in this case, the cracks were caused by an expansion gap in the building.
Sohtun, accompanied by the local MDC Victor Rani, RUSA senior consultants and others visited the site to verify the situation.
RUSA official B Tariang told the media later that the cracks were merely tears in the plaster over the expansion joints. Since the building is a large one, it has been constructed in three blocks and these joints have been put in place connecting the three locks as a way of mitigating the effects of earthquakes.
Tariang also said that special clamps will be installed to prevent further cracks.
