PONDA
A water suction pump and filtration tank installed at the Ganje Bandhara barely four days ago collapsed and fell in the Mhadei river on Wednesday morning.
The pump had been inaugurated by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on July 16 at a cost of about Rs 10 crore from the District Mineral Fund for augmented Water Supply System at Sankhali constituency to ensure uninterrupted water supply to the villages of Pale, Velguem and Surla in Sankhali.
A contractor from Kolhapur was appointed to construct the project and workers informed the contractor about the incident on Wednesday.
Given the strong flow of the Mhadei river, locals had suggested the installation of the pump at some other place. Some PWD employees are also alleged to have requested senior engineers not to install the pump at the site.
But the locals claim that the engineers did not pay heed to these requests, resulting in this accident and loss to public property and public money.
Usgao Panch Manisha Usgaonkar rushed to the spot after being informed of the incident.
Denouncing the wastage of public money, Usgaonkar claimed that inferior material had been used by contractors while constructing government projects, which is why they fall apart within a short while.
