Blame Game Begins in the Tantia Construction Fallout
Patna: May 3, 2008
A day after the state government showed the door to Tantia Constructions for failing to show satisfactory progress on various road projects in Bihar, the blame game began on Saturday when both parties exchanged accusations with each other while denying their own culpability.
While the officials of the Tantia Constructions accused the Road Construction department for not providing the blueprints of the roads to be repaired prior to the construction, the state officials put the fault with the company saying the company had outsourced the projects to other private players without first checking their backgrounds resulting in inordinate delay and poor quality of the road work.
The Tantia Corporation also blamed the government bureaucracy for failing to provide easy access to stone quarries in Bihar resulting in slow work progress. The government's failure to remove underground pipeline, telephone cables, and illegal occupation of land near construction sites also led to the delay in the work, Tantia officials said.
Meanwhile, the Road Construction officials tried to pass the buck on the Patna Electricity Supply Undertaking (PESU) for not removing electric poles from the roads to facilitate smooth operation of the developmental works.
With the state government preparing to re-issue tender for road construction in Bihar that are expected to be in excess of Rs. 170 crore, the fate of Bihar roads hang in the hand of bureaucrats who have all the reason to delay the projects for obvious reasons.
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