PWD under CSWO scanner

From A Reporter

SHILLONG, June 19: The CSWO has slammed the State Public Works Department (PWD) for not taking the condition of the roads in Meghalaya seriously.

CSWO  president Agnes Kharshiing in a statement released here on Sunday said, “This is like an insult to the public, as crores of public funds is pumped into this department, but roads are left neglected.”

She said the poor condition of the roads has caused great difficulties to commuters, school children, ambulances who have to rush patients to hospitals, as well as the police.

According to her, the bad road conditions lead to slow driving and causes delay.

“This is clear cheating and neglect of duty by the authorities of this department, which also leads to corruption in connivance with the contractors, as there is no follow up by the engineers assigned to look after the roads,” she said, adding that the bad roads also give a bad impression about the way development funds are being utilized.

She felt that it is mandatory that the wear and tear of the road should be maintained by the contractor, yet according to an RTI finding, hardly any contractor has been black-listed or show-caused even though the conditions of the roads all over the State are so pathetic.

“This clearly indicates that in areas where the roads are bad and full of potholes, the engineers assigned who are paid a big salary by the State have not performed and they just blindly issued the completion certificates to the contractors,” she said. The CSWO had also earlier written to the Chief Engineer of PWD (Roads) about issuing immediate direction to all engineers to look into all bad roads and black-list erring contractors. The CSWO threatened to file a PIL in the High Court if the government continue to turns it back on the problem.