Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 26: State Government is soft-paddling on framing of Rural Roads Maintenance Policy despite repeated communiqués of the Union Ministry of Rural Development to the top bureaucrats of Jammu and Kashmir during the past nearly one and half year.
If this non-serious approach continued, the maintenance of all the roads constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and going to complete five years maintenance contract this year, would become a serious issue as objective behind framing of this policy is to ensure sustained funding.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in order to ensure that all the roads constructed under flagship scheme of PMGSY don’t become unfruitful expenditure and are properly maintained after the lapse of five years maintenance contract with the contractor, the Union Ministry of Rural Development found it appropriate to get Rural Roads Maintenance Policy prepared at the State level.
Accordingly, in the month of January 2014, the Ministry arranged one-day national workshop on the subject wherein policy and its aspects were discussed threadbare with the hope that the same would come to great use in finalizing the policy by the States.
Thereafter, the Union Ministry dashed several communiqués to the Chief Secretary and Secretary of the Rural Development Department of J&K stressing the need for early formulation of the policy, sources said, adding even the Secretary in the Union Ministry repeatedly underlined the need for evolving State specific Rural Roads Maintenance Policy at various forums including in the Empowered Committee meetings and Regional Review meetings.
As there was no seriousness from the J&K Government, L C Goyal, Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development on January 5, 2015 wrote to the Chief Secretary, Mohammad Iqbal Khandey asking him to facilitate formulation of policy within the ongoing fiscal year (2014-15).
“However, till date the policy formulation continues to be at an infancy stage despite expiry of deadline fixed by the Ministry. The non-seriousness on the part of concerned authorities is notwithstanding the fact that proper coordination is imperative to ensure that assets for the rural people created under the PMGSY are maintained properly”, sources regretted.
Stating that PMGSY is a huge Central investment in the State sector as part of a poverty reduction strategy and has created a substantial rural infrastructure asset base to improve rural connectivity, sources said, “by soft-paddling on the formulation of Rural Roads Maintenance Policy, the State authorities have clearly indicated that they are not ready to understand that massive investment would be useful only if the rural road network is maintained in good condition at all times”.
“The non-serious approach is notwithstanding the fact that putting in place institutional measures to ensure systematic maintenance and providing adequate funding for maintenance of rural core network is imperative”, sources regretted while disclosing that on expiry of five-year post construction maintenance, the PMGSY roads are to be placed under zonal maintenance contracts consisting of five-year maintenance including renewal as per cycle.
Large number of PMGSY roads both in Jammu and Kashmir provinces are going to complete five-year post construction maintenance this year as such formulation of comprehensive policy is necessary so that every year sufficient funds are earmarked for maintenance aspect.
According to the sources, the inordinate delay is notwithstanding the fact that Model Policy Framework for Maintenance of Rural Roads along with a Guidance Note was also shared with the J&K Government. Even in the month of March this year, copies of the policies prepared by some States were handed over to the concerned authorities of J&K so that they can take cue from the same and evolve the policy to suit State specific needs
When contacted, a senior officer, on the condition of anonymity, said, “we are on the job to formulate the policy as some more documents have been given to us as guidelines”, adding “”we will shortly submit policy to the Government for approval”. He, however, failed to specify any timeframe in this regard.
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