By Vikas Sharma
Jammu : Despite instructions from the Ministry of Rural Development regarding submission of action taken reports (ATRs) of both completed and ongoing works to the National Rural Roads Development Agency (NRRDA) on monthly basis, ATRs of 10 completed works and 62 ongoing works under the Centre-sponsored Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) are still lying pending with the state government.
This was informed in the regional review meeting of the PMGSY recently held at New Delhi under the chairmanship of Rajesh Bhushan, Director General (DG), NRRDA.
Sources said the Rural Development Ministry had expressed concern over the slow pace of works and asked J&K to submit the plan of action month-wise, road-wise, phase-wise as well as stage-wise of all incomplete road works to the ministry and NRRDA. The sources claimed that the NRRDA Director (Technical) reiterated the need to submit the pending ATRs to the NRRDA on priority. The state was asked to verify ATRs at the level of Chief Engineer.
The sources said as far as unsatisfactory projects reported by national quality monitors (NQMs), both in the completed and ongoing categories, were concerned, J&K has 9.76 per cent unsatisfactory completed projects and 8.92 per cent unsatisfactory ongoing projects. The percentage of both categories was based on the 71 inspections made by NQMs in J&K.
“The state was advised by the Director (Technical) to periodically review the quality monitoring system for better implementation of this Central scheme. In fact, the NQMs during their inspection between April, 2015, and January, 2017, have found that 32.39 per cent completed projects in J&K were not maintained properly. The Director (Technical) pointed out that the maintenance of rural roads is a cause of serious concern in J&K and advised to study and analyse this,” the sources claimed.
“The state needs to closely monitor the availability of funds vis-a-vis the expenditure on maintenance to ensure that the road network is maintained to the desired levels,” the sources maintained.
Source: The Tribune
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