Cuttack man death brings JICA negligence to fore

Cuttack: The incident of the death of a man after falling into an uncovered drain at Bidanasi area on Thursday night has once again brought to the fore negligence of officials carrying out Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-funded projects in the city.
The family of the deceased and local residents have alleged that 50-year-old Shankar Pradhan was killed as JICA officials had not covered the drain with slabs after completing their work.
"The person was killed due to callous and negligent attitude of the JICA officials. I will lodge a complaint about the incident to the Cuttack Municipal Corporation as well as the JICA authorities, urging them to take action against the erring officials," said local corporator, Bikash Behera.
The JICA-funded integrated sanitation development project has always been on news for the wrong reasons. Sometimes the project hogs the limelight for inordinate delays, the other times it faces widespread criticism for causing public inconvenience.
"This is not the first time that such a mishap had occurred at a JICA site. Local residents and even corporators have time and again complained about the negligence of the JICA officials, but so far no concrete action has been taken against them," alleged Congress corporator, Giribala Behera, adding, "they dig roads and drains wherever they want and then forget to cover them. Besides, they don't take any precautionary measures."
A day after the incident, project officials have ordered probe into the matter and claimed that measures will be taken to avoid such mishaps in future.
"Our expert technical team will probe the matter. We will take action against the erring officials. We will ensure proper safety norms are implemented at every site across the city and we will direct contractors to conduct safety drills to avoid such mishap in future," said JICA project director, Basant Parida.
The project, which is being implemented by Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board, envisages developing a 375km sewerage system and reconstruction of 23 km of the existing two main storm water drains in the city. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone of the project on October 1, 2012.