Malda, July 30 -- West Bengal Minister of State for Labour and Public Health Engineering, Bhaskar Bhattacharya, has proposed a major policy change aimed at improving the quality and durability of government drinking water projects. During his two-day visit to Malda on Tuesday and Wednesday, the minister inspected several ongoing projects under the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department and expressed concern over delays, poor workmanship and incomplete infrastructure.
Bhattacharya visited multiple project sites across the district to assess the progress of drinking water schemes. He interacted with departmental officials and contractors to identify the reasons behind stalled works and reviewed the quality of construction. According to the minister, several projects suffered from substandard execution, while many others remained incomplete due to various technical and administrative issues.
Addressing a press conference at the Malda Circuit House on Wednesday evening, the minister announced that he would recommend a new rule to the state government requiring contractors to maintain completed projects for seven years.
"I will send a proposal to the state government that every contractor or contracting agency must take responsibility for maintaining any newly completed project for seven years. If any part of the project is damaged or develops faults during this period, the contractor will have to repair it entirely at their own expense," Bhattacharya said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the minister chaired a review meeting at the district administrative headquarters with PHE officials and members of the district administration. During the meeting, he highlighted several shortcomings in the implementation of drinking water projects under the Jal Jeevan Mission. He pointed out that construction of water treatment plants and overhead reservoirs had remained stalled in several locations, while pipeline installation work was still incomplete in many areas.
The minister said officials had been instructed to complete 79 ongoing projects by September. Priority, he added, has been given to schemes that have already achieved nearly 70 per cent physical progress.
"Our immediate focus is to complete the projects that are close to completion. Once these are finished by September, we aim to complete the remaining pending schemes by December. Public money must be used responsibly, and any wastage or negligence will not be tolerated," he said.
The proposed maintenance policy is expected to strengthen contractor accountability and ensure better quality, sustainability and long-term reliability of drinking water infrastructure across the state.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.