The A·chik Progressive Approach (APA) organisation has written to the officer in charge of Ampati police station to file a formal complaint against the Public Health Engineering Department there, the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi) and local contractor for the alleged disbursal of more than Rs 40.60 lakh for a particular project that has not been completed.
Despite the PHE Minister saying in April that payments to JJM project contractors will only be made when work is completed and after confirmation by third party inspectors (in this case NEDFi), funds have been disbursed even though much of the project work is incomplete, the pressure group said.
In this particular case, a ring well has been dug and some portion of a treatment plant has been constructed but the two have yet to be connected by a gravity pipeline. Additionally, no water pump has been connected and no water flows from the ring well to the treatment plant or any of the tanks.
APA questioned how the third party could have recommended payment of the “running bill” to the contractor “without completing the certain stage/level of work”.
The complaint also claimed that the JJM dashboard, featuring data reported to the state and central governments, shows 100 percent tap connection to the 30 households even though none of these households have been fitted with taps under this project.
APA also said that there is no Village Water Sanitation Committee in this village of Jengitchakgre. No JJM projects are meant to be implemented without the existence of such a committee. The group called for a thorough investigation by police into the allegations made.
