PHE’s faulty engineering leads to failure of Rs 1.13 crore scheme
‘Fix responsibility; take action against PHE officials’
Waheed Bhat
Bandipora, February 02: A huge population of Gujar community has been denied pure drinking water as the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department allegedly embezzled the money meant for water supply scheme in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
Three years ago people in Panar Athwatoo complained through media that the officials of PHE embezzled huge amount of money while executing water supply scheme in the area.
Locals at that time alleged that the officials in the department in connivance with the district administration and contractor have violated the rules and regulation while laying the pipes for the scheme that costs 1.13 crores. However district administration failed to take action at the proper time leading to failure of the scheme.
“PHE laid pipes in open instead of laying it underground. A light snow washed away the pipes soon PHE laid it. We don’t know where they spent 1.13 crores,” questioned the locals. “We are not engineers but we used common sense and told officers about weather conditions and asked them to put pipes underground to protect from heavy snow but they didn’t paid heed,” locals alleged saying that the then Deputy Commissioner also paid no heed to their pleas.
As the water supply scheme is lying defunct since the day it started, the residents of this far flung village are forced to consume polluted water of Nallah, shared by animals as well. “Government announced scheme for the people, Officials and then ministers embezzled the money and we continue to suffer,” they added.
Inhabitants of Panar village said the PHE officials never bother to repair the pipes even after realizing the flaws in their engineering. “The PHE officials are hardly bothered to perform their duties,” residents said.
They further said that even as they took up the issue with the concerned department several times in the past, no action was taken to address the problem. “PHE officials every time say they will address the problems but all in vain they have usurped the money meant for scheme and now they are afraid of putting informing their higher ups,” locals said.
Locals appealed Governor of the state to investigate the matter and fix responsibility over the embezzlement and subsequent failure of the scheme.
“We don’t have proper water supply system except three street taps which are defunct in absence of repairs. Villagers are forced to walk four kilometer mountainous track to fetch water from Nallah,” said Naik Mohammad, a local resident.
“The concerned officials should have initiated steps to repair the damaged reservoir but they, instead, did not pay any heed to it, forcing people of the area to drink unsafe water,” said Abdullah Paswal, another local. The residents said they several times approached concerned PHE authorities but neither their water supply line has been restored nor drinking water vehicle have been ever supplied he alleged.
When contacted Assistant Executive Engineer PHE Shabir Ahmad, said that all the defunct water supply schemes in the area would be revamped soon.
Comments are closed.