Patna, Dec 17 (IANS) Bihar’s Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) Minister Sanjay Kumar Singh on Wednesday held a press conference, outlining several key decisions aimed at ensuring accountability, timely completion of projects, and recovery of pending dues within the department.

The minister clarified that contractors associated with the PHED who have outstanding electricity bills will not be permitted to participate in future tender processes.

Such contractors have been given one month to clear their dues.

Singh said a departmental review meeting was held earlier in the day, during which the accountability of officers at all levels was assessed.

He warned that the salaries of officers who fail to ensure recovery of outstanding amounts within the stipulated one-month period will be withheld.

It was also decided that projects where work has been stalled will be granted necessary approvals and must be completed within one month.

“The Chief Engineer will closely monitor all ongoing works, and strict action will be taken against officers found absent from offices or work sites,” Singh said.

The minister added that officers in districts where work remains pending — including Nawada, Biharsharif, and Sasaram — have been issued a final deadline of one month. Failure to complete the work within the timeframe will result in withholding of salaries of the concerned officers.

Sanjay Singh said that all issues were reviewed zone-wise in detail during the meeting and emphasised that strict measures are being implemented to ensure transparency, discipline, and accountability in departmental functioning.

Sanjay Kumar Singh, the MLA from the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), won the Mahua Assembly seat in the recently concluded election, defeating RJD’s Mukesh Roshan and JJD’s Tej Pratap Yadav.

Sanjay Singh secured 87,641 votes in Mahua, defeating the incumbent RJD MLA Mukesh Roshan by a large margin of 44,997 votes.

Mukesh Roshan managed to garner only 42,644 votes. Lalu Yadav’s elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav, was also rejected by the voters.

–IANS

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