Umar Khurshid
Islamabad
Exposing the poor construction practices, a culvert retaining-wall, constructed by R&B department at Darigund-Srigufwara village of district Islamabad, has collapsed just after fifteen days.
According to locals, the work was executed by the contractor in Chilai-Kalan-the harsh winter period of Kashmir. A whopping amount of Rs 35 lakhs have reportedly been spent on the culvert that connects the village with its horticulture area mostly having dense apple orchards.
A group of locals told Kashmir Life that despite their resentment the department allowed contractor to execute the work in harsh cold period of winter. “When the contractor started executing the work, we objected and requested the concerned department to lay foundation of the culvert and retaining wall properly, however much to our disappointment they raised the wall from existing bund which Rural Development Department had constructed few decades ago.”
The villagers are now demanding a probe and action against the erring engineers.
They said that they will not allow anyone to loot taxpayers’ money. “This was our long pending demand and we had requested our MLA to get some funds for raising this culvert as our area produces huge quantity of fruits and in absence of road connectivity we will face immense problems”.
