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Assembly has no role in dome collapse: Speaker

Shillong, Oct 4: Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh has said the Assembly Secretariat has no role in the collapse of the dome of its new building.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after the swearing in ceremony of BD Mishra as state governor,  Lyngdoh said,” Assembly has no role to play,”.

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His response was after a question was raised against the government’s decision to appoint IIT Guwahati, which is allegedly linked to the two contractors of the project – UPRNNL and Badri Rai & Co.

Government had entrusted IIT Guwahati to carry out third party audit to investigate into the dome collapse.

AITC had pointed out that IIT-Guwahati currently has Rs 136.86 crore ongoing construction contract which is being executed by UPRNNL and Badri Rai & Co- the same two companies, which were working on the collapsed new Meghalaya Assembly building.

Lyngdoh, who is also the chairman of  the High Powered Committee (HPC), said, “I don’t now anything about that (IIT-G being linked to the two contractors).”

To a question as to how come the project was allotted to disqualified contractor Badri Rai , the Assembly Speaker said, “You please talk to the government and to the PWD department it is not the concern of the Assembly.”

When Badri Rai & Co had participated in the bid after the tender was called, it was not qualified but the main contractor UPRNNL sub contracted the Assembly work to Badri Rai.

Lyngdoh added, “It is up to the government. You ask the government about this question not me, I mean how will I say I don’t know anything about this matter which you have asked.”

The  AITC had on September 30 demanded appointment of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Rourkee for conducting a fresh audit into the collapse of the dome of the Assembly building at Mawdiangdiang.

The AITC national spokesperson Saket Gokhale stressed the need to uncover the alleged illegal nexus between the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government and UPRNNL and Badri Rai & Co.

The AITC said  the government’s decision to appoint the IIT-Guwahati instead of IIT Rourkee to probe into the dome collapse was purely to shield the contractors – UPRNNL and Badri Rai & Co and to bury the incident quietly without taking any serious action against the two contractors.

“Therefore, for this entire illegal nexus to be uncovered, we demand that the IIT-Rourkee or any other independent agency (which is not working with UPRNNL or Badri Rai & Co.) be appointed for a fresh audit of the collapse of the dome of the new Meghalaya Assembly Building besides  UPRNNL and Badri Rai & Co should be immediately blacklisted instead of asking them to carry on with the work’, he said.

Gokhale wanted an independent court-monitored probe to be initiated immediately into the shocking acts of collusion and connivance between the MDA government and the two contractors who have been allowed to violate all norms and who have been protected by the MDA government despite their failures.

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