Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 16: Sanctioned for remote and inaccessible areas three years back, the fate of over 100 roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is hanging in balance in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir as construction cost has escalated enormously due to spilling over of work. Facing peculiar situation, the State Government has now pinned hope on the additional assistance from the Union Rural Development Ministry, which otherwise has not made any commitment till date.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in the year 2008 the then State Government sent projects of over 100 roads to the Union Rural Development Ministry for sanction under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in order to provide benefit of this flagship scheme of the Union Government to huge number of remote and inaccessible villages in the length and breadth of the State.
However, because of certain reasons including the failure of the State Government to complete previously sanctioned projects on time the sanctioning of new projects got delayed. Despite being reprimanded by the Union Government on this front, there was no seriousness on the part of the concerned authorities of the State and the execution of the previously sanctioned projects stretched beyond the stipulated time-frame.
Finally, the Union Rural Development Ministry cleared the projects sent by the State Government in 2008 under Phase-8 and Phase-9 in July 2012 and December 2012 respectively with the direction to the concerned authorities of J&K to ensure expeditious completion of such projects, sources informed.
However, over 100 road projects sanctioned under Phase-8 and Phase-9 in 2012 have yet not been completed by the concerned authorities of the State despite lapse of nearly three years, sources disclosed, adding in Jammu region out of 80 projects sanctioned under these two phases, 70 are still at Stage-I and 10 are at Stage-II.
It is pertinent to mention here that under Stage-I, activities like earth cutting, walling and drainage crossing etc are carried out and under Stage-II the left over drainage crossing and black-topping activities are performed.
“As far as Stage-II is concerned, the contractors are reluctant to carry out the work of left over drainage crossing and black-topping mainly on the plea of escalation in the project cost”, sources informed, adding the concerned authorities of State are repeatedly floating tenders since last year but there is no response from the contractors as they don’t find carrying out the Stage-II works within the ceiling fixed by the PMGSY authorities of State economical mainly because of increase in cost of bitumen during these three years”.
“In the absence of Stage-II activities, the works carried out during the Stage-I are also getting affected with the passage of time and due to weather vagaries and ultimately this would be great loss to the exchequer”, sources pointed out.
About the Stage-I, sources said, “the stretching of work is unjustified as the objective of the PMGSY scheme is to provide fair weather road connectivity to the remote and inaccessible areas within a period of at least two years”, adding “due to the prevailing situation the people of remote and far-off areas in both Jammu and Kashmir regions have failed to get any benefit of over 100 roads sanctioned three years back by the Union Government”.
“The nexus of the engineers with the contractors particularly with regard to the Stage-I works is also one of the reasons behind meager money remaining for the Stage-II works”, sources pointed out, adding “in major parts of the State the PMGSY scheme has actually provided benefits to the engineers and contractors instead of people because of well knit nexus between them”.
What to talk of those people, who pin high-hope on road connectivity, even those people whose land is acquired for such roads don’t get compensation on time, sources regretted, adding “though the State Government has approached the Union Rural Development Ministry to provide additional funds to complete these over 100 roads, the Ministry has not made any commitment till date and nobody knows when these projects would become reality and provide benefit of Union Government’s ambitious scheme to the people”.
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