*Even PWD fails to provide connectivity to huge populace
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 13: In a grave injustice, people of 1171 habitations of Jammu and Kashmir have remained deprived of proper road connectivity under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) because of major error committed by the then Government in 2003 and failure of successive Governments including the present PDP-BJP Coalition to get it corrected through the Union Ministry of Rural Development. Moreover, the Roads and Buildings Department of State Government has maintained blind eye towards the connectivity woes of such a large population.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that about 14 years back when the original core network under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) was being chalked out as per the census of 2001 a grave error was committed by the concerned authorities of Jammu and Kashmir as a result of which 1171 habitations remained out of the core network.
The mistake came to the fore only when people of these habitations started enquiring from the concerned authorities about the time-frame for start of work on road connectivity. Thereafter began the process of blame-game among the politicians and whosoever remained the Roads and Buildings Minister accused his predecessor of doing nothing to ensure that these 1171 habitations get justice.
After much hue and cry, the matter finally reached at the concerned quarter—Union Ministry of Rural Development, which few years back agreed to update the core network but with the directions to the State Government to complete the necessary formalities within the specified time-frame. Accordingly, these habitations were uploaded on Online Management, Monitoring and Accounting System (OMMAS) of PMGSY.
“However, no formal decision has been taken by the Union Rural Development Ministry regarding inclusion of these 1171 left-over villages in the core network of PMGSY”, sources said, adding though each and every R&B Minister took up this issue with the Union Rural Development Ministry during their respective tenure but they failed to exert the required pressure so that grave injustice committed with population of 1171 habitations for no fault of theirs was brought to an end.
They further said, “as their own efforts failed to yield the desired results the successive R&B Ministers should have persuaded the Union Government through the Chief Ministers of the time. Had this been done vast population of 1171 habitations could have not been deprived of road connectivity till date”.
“Another grave aspect is that the Roads and Buildings Department of the State Government has remained mute spectator to the plight of these habitations and failed to take up the areas in phases for providing road connectivity”, sources regretted, adding “on one side the people of these 1171 habitations are the victims of slackness of the Union Ministry in taking decision and on the other side the non-serious approach of State’s R&B Department is rubbing salt on their woes”.
According to the sources, not only these 1171 habitations there are numerous others which despite being part of the core network have yet not been sanctioned for providing road connectivity under PMGSY.
When contacted, Minister for Roads and Buildings, Naeem Akhtar admitted that no decision has yet been taken by the Union Rural Development Ministry on 1171 habitations, adding “we are going to vociferously raise this issue before the Union Ministry once again and hopefully these 1171 habitations would get approved for connectivity under PMGSY”. However, the Minister failed to specify any time-frame for positive decision on such a large number of habitations.
It is pertinent to mention here that out of 1171 habitations, 746 are in Jammu region and rest in Kashmir valley. The PMGSY has the objective of providing all-weather connectivity to all unconnected habitations with population of 500 persons and above and 250 persons and above in hilly States.
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