By Express News Service
BHUBANESWAR:Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday lashed out at the State Government for showing favouritism to a blacklisted construction company despite repeated mishaps during construction of a road over bridge.
“It is a matter of great concern that a second mishap occurred in a span of seven months and the same construction company is carrying out the work of the fly over at Bomikhal,” Pradhan said after visiting the accident spot. A portion of fly over collapsed on Thursday night killing a worker and injuring another.
Targeting the Chief Minister’s office for allowing PandaInfra Projects (Pvt) Limited to carry out the project despite a mishap in September last year, the Union Minister said the recent tragedy has raised concerns over the quality of construction work.
Dubbing the Government as inefficient and corrupt, Pradhan sought to know on what basis the officers suspended for dereliction of duty were reinstated and the construction company was allowed to continue the work.Instead of sacking a few low level officials, strict action needs to be taken against the real culprits, including top officers, of the Works Department responsible for such incidents.
While urging the State Government to reconsider other projects awarded to the company, the Union Minister demanded an impartial probe into the construction of flyover by reliable agencies like IIT Chennai, which has experience and expertise in civil engineering.Later addressing an ‘LPG Panchayat’ organised by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL) at Mangaljodi in Tangi block of Khurdha district, Pradhan said LPG penetration in the State has reached to 58.55 per cent by May 1 against 20 per cent in June 2014.
The Centre has set a target of providing gas connections to 80 lakh households by the end of December 2018.“As of now total 24.23 lakh LPG connections have been released under Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojna and it is a matter of pride that LPG penetration in Khurda district has reached 100 per cent,” he said.
He said 177 new LPG distributors have been added to the list which comes around 775 in the State. An additional 225 distributors are being planned to take the total number to 1000. This shows the level of LPG penetration in the State.The LPG Panchayat is a part of the Gramn Swaraj Abhiyan being observed across the States from April 14 to May 5 to promote use of LPG for better health.
Panda’s bail rejected
Bhubaneswar: The bail plea of Managing Director of Panda Infraprojects Private Limited, Pratap Kishore Panda, was rejected by a court here on Saturday. Panda’s counsel CR Dash stated before the court that Panda Infraprojects entered into an agreement for the construction work and his client executed the power of attorney in favour of the project director of the assignment, Bipul Chakrabarty, on January 3.
