A team of the North Cachar Hills Indigenous Students’ Forum (NCHISF) on Monday alleged that Ratna Infrastructure, the construction firm which was given the responsibility of maintaining National Highway 54E (Jatinga-Silchar road), had engaged Silchar-based construction firm Lakshmi Motors for maintenance of the highway.

Forum president David Keivom alleged that since the beginning of the four-lane work, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had engaged several construction firms and they engaged inefficient sub-contractors, compromising on rate and quality of work.

“We have found that Lakshmi Motors has been engaged without any work order. We suspect that Ratna Infrastructure had engaged them. During the monsoon, Lakshmi Motors had done sub-standard work that ruined properties of villagers residing near the highway,” Keivom said.

Over the past three years, Lakshmi Motors has been looking after maintenance work of the Jatinga-Silchar road, but no improvement can be seen till date and the road condition remains the same.

On January 10, the forum demanded a high-level inquiry against regional officer (RO), NHAI, for misappropriation of funds meant for road construction.

The RO reportedly awarded the contract to Ratna Infrastructure for maintenance.

Several attempts by both the forum and the media to meet project director (PD) Karge Kamki to enquire about the matter were futile as the PD always gave false excuses.