DIPHU, July 22 - A massive protest rally against the Simplex Somdatt Company (JB) was held on July 20 at Diphu in protest against the delay in the construction of Manja- Lumding road on NH-329.
The protest rally was jointly organised by the Diphu Lok Sabha Youth Congress, National Students� Union of India (NSUI), Karbi Anglong district unit and Lumbajong Momdol Congress Committee (LMCC). The rally under the leadership of John Millik, vice-president, Lok Sabha Youth Congress Committee, later submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi through the Deputy Commissioner of Karbi Anglong against the Simplex company demanding immediate cancellation of the allocated work and its re-allotment to a �competent� company.
The organisations in the memorandum said that as per the agreement made between the Central Government and company, the NH-329 construction of Manja to Lunding via Diphu had to be completed within March 6, 2014.
The memorandum further stated that the road construction work had to progress at least 3 kms per day. Four years have already passed but no construction work is seen except dressing of the site-bump of both sides of the road.
Meanwhile, the said organisations urged the Prime Minister to cancel the work order issued to Simplex Somdatt Company and to re-allot it to a �competent� company so that construction work progresses immediately.
It may be mentioned here that recently an urgent meeting was also called by Biren Sing Engti, MP Diphu constituency with the DC, SP and KAAC authority regarding the slow progress of the Manja-Lumding road. He also called the company�s Assistant General Manager, Soumiran Ghosh and NHAI Executive Engineer to the meeting to apprise him about why the company is taking so long to complete even 20 per cent of the work. But Engti�s intervention and action too has been ignored completely by company. Engti had also made it clear that if the work is not finished within the stipulated time, then their work could be blacklisted. On the other hand, though the AGM of the company, Soumiran Ghosh, promised to finish the work by the month of March 2014, the construction works is still going on at snail�s pace.
Due to the slow pace of work, the road condition has been deteriorating by the day ever since the construction of the road was started in the year 2011. The contract amount was estimated at Rs 165 crore. The contractual work order was issued by the NEC.