The high-powered inquiry committee, headed by Additional Chief Secretary P P Varma and with former water resources secretary A K Mitra as the other member, has been asked to go into various aspects as to why the geo-fabric embankment remained incomplete and failed. Nearly one lakh people in 90 villages of Lakhimpur were affected when gushing waters easily breached the incomplete embankment between June 29 and July 2.

The committee has also been asked to find out the lapses due to which the embankment could not be completed, and detect if there were any malpractices and corruption in the contract. It has been asked to submit its report as early as possible.

The contract for construction of a 5-km-long embankment at a place called Matmora in Lakhimpur district by using geo-fabric and geo-tubes was awarded to a Malaysian company, Emaskira. The company was set a deadline of 100 days for completion of the project. Accordingly, while Chief Minister Gogoi laid the foundation stone for the project on February 16, the company began work on March 25.

Though the embankment at Matmora on the north bank of the Brahmaputra has been under constant threat, the authorities had only resorted to patch-work in the name of repairs, leading to a situation when the river took away a stretch of about 5 km of it last year. Interestingly, though Matmora is on the north bank of the river, it serves as a protection not just for Lakhimpur district but also for the northern part of Majuli, the heritage island in the middle of the Brahmaputra.

While the Malaysian company had committed to complete its task well within June, sources in the state Water Resources Department said hardly 10 per cent of the work was actually completed when the first wave of floods hit the site. When the river overflowed between June 29 and July 2, laying of geo-tubes was completed only on 3.5 km of a total length of five km, leaving a wide gap of 1.5 km.

Though the Malaysian company could not be contacted, sources said the Assam government had defaulted in paying it a mobilisation fund of Rs 30 crore, and had released only Rs 15 crore. Low tide in the Kolkata harbour, delay in customs clearance at Kolkata and holding up of vehicles at the Srirampur inter-state check gates by the Assam government sales tax department also contributed towards delay in completion of the project, sources said.