Rajbiraj, August 5

Residents of Saptakoshi Municipality in Saptari district have decided to approach the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority to probe ‘irregularities’ in development projects in the municipality.

A meeting of locals held here recently in the presence of representatives of political parties decided to ask the anti-graft body through its eastern regional contact office based in Itahari, Sunsari, to investigate irregularities in development work in the municipality.

Rajendra Prasad Dahaland, acting executive officer and Sudip Chaudhary, engineer, of the municipality in cahoots with contractors were involved in irregularities in a number of road projects currently underway in the municipality, said Chandrashekhar Chaudhary, a local.

He added that the locals had no option other than to ask for intervention of the anti-graft body after their  repeated complaints about the poor quality of road construction work fell on deaf ears.

The municipality had contracted a project worth Rs 3.956 million to blacktop roads in Ward No 2. The locals accused the contractor of carrying out work deviating from the earlier estimates on collusion with the acting executive officer and the engineer of the municipality.

The locals also said engineer Chaudhary verbally abused them whenever they voiced their concern. “We complained about the poor quality of work but he wouldn’t listen. Instead, he treated us with hostility and told us to keep mum,” lamented local Jahir Husain.

The acting executive officer, Dahal however described the complaints about irregularities as politically motivated. He also said, “There might have been some lapses in the work and we can move ahead by addressing them. But we cannot entertain a handful people trying to stop the work.” He claimed that he had been approached earlier by a few people who demanded commission to allow the work to continue.