Principal secretary (water resources department) Afzal Amanullah has set May 31 as the deadline for engineers concerned to complete all ongoing work on river embankments and spurs in the district.

He added that those failing to complete the task on time would face the music.

Amanullah, who visited Bhagalpur on Saturday, inspected various ongoing work on the embankments and spurs of the Ganga at Naugachia sub-division. He reviewed a high-level meeting with the engineers of the department and senior district officers.

He asked the officers concerned to ensure storage of all items required to protect the embankments by May 31. He also instructed them to assign a halt station at Ismailpur Bindtoli for engineers to inspect the ongoing anti-erosion work.

During the review meeting, Amanullah discussed the progress of work on the embankments at 26 points, among which 19 are in Bhagalpur district.

Fourteen of these are on the embankment of the Ganga, four on the Kosi and one on the Garua. In Bhagalpur, all the projects are expected to be completed at a cost of Rs 48.47 crore. “After May 31, the repair work would be reviewed. If irregularities are found, firm action would be taken against the persons responsible,” Amanullah said.

He added that if the contractors assigned for the repair of embankments and anti-erosion work failed to complete the projects within the stipulated time, they would be blacklisted and FIRs would be lodged against them under the provision of the Disaster Management Act, 2006.

The senior officer expressed concern over the erosion of the embankments at many places.