IT is another story of peculiar development. Just two days before inauguration by the Prime Minister, a part of the 850-metre 2nd Teesta Bridge Link Road, located in the Gangachara upazila of Rangpur, collapsed on Friday being washed away by strong current. It was scheduled to inaugurate on Sunday. According to local newspapers, the sudden breakdown of the small bridge portion and the link road snapped communications of four upazilas of Lalmonirhat with Rangpur.
The bridge was built spending Tk 123.86 crore. Local people alleged the bridge on the link road collapsed as substandard materials were used for its construction. They claimed that the contracting firm resorted to various anomalies in connivance with Local Government Engineering Department engineers in implementing the project. They said the engineers who were responsible for supervising the work did not perform their duty properly. Though the locals protested the irregularities several times, the administration did not pay any attention, the newspapers reported.
However, the inauguration ceremony will be held in time amid collapse, the Deputy Commissioner of Rangpur said. It was earlier opened to traffic as per the directives of the PM before formal inauguration. Local people alleged that it was supposed to be a two-foot layer of clay mud on the five-km connecting road, but construction works were completed using only cobblestone on sand.
In fact, each tier of the local government engineering department along with the roads and highway department is plagued with irregularities and corruption. A number of officials and engineers of the departments are allegedly building sub-standard bridges, roads and other projects to misappropriate public money.
The collapse of Teesta Bridge Link Road proves that there is no accountability anywhere in the government. Everybody feels free to do corruption. They know they would get impunity. We don’t understand why ruling high-up is so much eager to show artificial development targeting the next general election. The government is now totally helpless to control or punish the corrupt.
