SHILLONG, Oct 27: Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) West Garo Hills convenor Richard Mrong Marak on Thursday took a jibe at the ruling NPP-led MDA Government for allegedly indulging in fabrication of a false Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) success story in Rongjeng’s Imsamdrop village in East Garo Hills.
Attacking the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department for playing a gimmick, Richard said the villagers were not only robbed of drinking water but the village Sordar of Imsamdrop had himself accused the department of tricking them into believing that the project was completed.
He also came down heavily on the PHE Minister, Renikton L Tongkhar, arguing that he vaguely delayed the authentication of the veracity of the report instead of refuting the claim with valid information.
The Shillong Times had recently highlighted the plight of the people of Imsamdrop village over the purported completion of JJM project in the village.
Imsamdrop is a village of about 37 households and falls under the Rongjeng C&RD Block. It is about 15 km from Rongjeng where the entire village is involved in the creation of bamboo stools. These stools are then sold to the rest of the state as well as outside.
As per the villagers, a project under JJM was sanctioned for the village for an amount of close to Rs 41 lakh and was apparently completed by the contractor, identified as Sahidur Rehman, this year. However, since the apparent ‘completion’ not only have the villagers not seen a drop of water but many households (more than half) were without even a connection.
The villagers claimed that they were not only robbed of drinking water but the overseer of the PHE department tricked them to show the project’s completion, alleging the authorities of forging the signatures of the president and secretary of the Village Water and Sanitation Committee.
Reacting to this, PHE Minister Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar said he will inquire into the allegations and seek a report from the authorities implementing the project in East Garo Hills.