Speaker puts on hold formation of House Committee on PWD

A day after its announcement, Assam Assembly Speaker Pranab Kumar Gogoi today withdrew formation of a House Committee to probe the alleged irregularities in functioning of the PWD, saying the government agency was doing "good job".
"I temporarily withdraw my ruling regarding formation of a House Committee over the functioning of Public Works Department (PWD). Yesterday we had a discussion over the matter and decided that this committee is not necessary at this moment," Gogoi said during the Question Hour.
"PWD is overall doing a good job. Lots of roads are being constructed all over Assam," Gogoi said.
Yesterday, the Speaker had announced that he would constitute a House Committee to examine alleged irregularities in inviting tenders from contractors by the PWD.

"I will set up an Assembly Committee to see the irregularities," Gogoi had said.
"There are different types of irregularities. Contractors inflate the tender and then do work. In many cases, they bid with lower rates than the base price. If someone is bidding with a lower rate than the fixed price then obviously they will do an inferior (quality) work," he had said.
"After blacklisting a contractor, then another problem persists that no one else comes out to do that work," the Speaker had said.
Gogoi was responding to a debate and scores of allegation by the Opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) over irregularities in the state PWD.