The chief minister on Wednesday came down heavily on a section of contractors and public health engineering department engineers for the collapse of a water reservoir in Bankura, saying the government had to cope with such an embarrassment because of their alleged corrupt practices.

Mamata Banerjee, who was conducting an administrative review meeting in Bankura, asked chief secretary Rajiva Sinha to crack down on graft to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.

“Why will such a tank collapse in a matter of three years? Stern legal action has to be taken against the contractor. The company will have to rebuild the tank, one that lasts, at its own expense,” said the chief minister.

On January 22, an overhead water reservoir constructed by the PHE under the Centre’s backward regions grant fund had collapsed in Bankura’s Saranga, prompting outrage and allegations from the Opposition of graft by the ruling Trinamul Congress.

The reservoir had the capacity to store 700 cubic meters of water.

Engineers had said sudden crash of any concrete structure without any natural calamity clearly indicated that materials used in the construction were of poor quality.

The tank was one of the 16 reservoirs constructed in 2017 in the Jungle Mahal areas of Bankura to supply purified drinking water to predominantly tribal populations.

“It is because of the malpractice of some contractors and PHE engineers that the government has to cope with such embarrassment. I will not tolerate this,” Mamata said at the meeting for the Bankura district, where both Lok Sabha seats were wrested by the BJP in 2019.

She then instructed the chief secretary to look into the matter and initiate action against such lapses.

“If required, get the anti-corruption wing on board. That will straighten them up. The nexus that has developed, giving work to contractors and taking shares, has to be destroyed,” Mamata told Sinha.

The chief minister then said she would ensure that a stern legislation was introduced to check corruption by contractors.

Sources said the PHE had conducted a health audit of the tanks constructed with the same central fund after the January 22 cave-in and it was found that some of the structures were already weak.

“The state government is getting maligned because of the PHE and such incidents. I have been repeatedly saying this to the PHE. I am now instructing the chief secretary to look into these things,” Mamata said.

The chief minister also asked Trinamul workers and public representatives present at the meeting to go to the people, hear them out and redress their grievances. “You will have to go to people, especially if they have misunderstood us or have any grievance. We will all have to work together,” she said.

“If the people have so many grievances after doing so much for the region, the buck has to stop with the people’s representatives,” she added.

Mamata also directed the chief secretary to ensure that there was no misuse of money in the name of preparing detailed project reports (DPRs).

“There is no need to prepare a DPR for every scheme. Make a model for every project, the way I had for setting up super-speciality hospitals, and go with it,” she added.