PMGSY: Poor quality dogs road building in Assam

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 17: Although the BJP came to power in Assam by riding its much-touted promise of parivartan, the reality is different on the ground when it comes to development of roads in rural areas of the State.

The quality of construction of rural roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yoja (PMGSY) in the State has so far been below expectations.

PMGSY was launched by Government of India to provide connectivity to isolated habitations in the country as part of a poverty reduction strategy. With the help of this scheme, the Central government is endeavoring to set high technical and magement standards and facilitating policy development and planning at State level in order to ensure sustaible magement of rural roads network. Besides building and repair of roads, construction of bridges is also undertaken under the scheme.

The tiol Quality Monitoring (NQM) agency, established by Government of India, closely examines the quality of construction of roads under PMGSY and regularly submits reports to the authorities concerned.

In what has come as a dampener, the NQM has exposed construction of poor quality roads under PMGSY in different parts of Assam from May 2016 to April 2017. It may be mentioned that the Sarbanda Sonowal government took reins in May last year.

According to the NQM report, inspection of 49 completed roads in the State was done but the inspection reports on 9 roads (18.37 per cent of the total inspected roads) were ‘unsatisfactory’, reports on other 9 roads ‘satisfactory but require improvement’ and reports on the remaining 31 roads were ‘satisfactory’.

The inspection of ongoing works with regard to 238 roads in the State was done but the inspection reports on 42 roads (17.65 per cent of the total inspected roads) were ‘unsatisfactory’, reports on other 46 roads ‘satisfactory but require improvement’ and reports on the remaining 150 roads were ‘satisfactory’, as per the NQM report.

The maintence of rural roads in the State is also poor compared to other States of the country. The NQM report added that inspection of maintence works with regard to 266 roads in the State was done but inspection reports on 115 roads (43.23 per cent of the total inspected roads) were ‘unsatisfactory’, reports on other 61 roads ‘satisfactory but require improvement’ and reports on the remaining 90 roads were ‘satisfactory’.

Compared to roads, quality of construction of bridges under PMGSY has been found better in the State. The NQM report stated that inspection of construction of 119 bridges in the State was done and of the inspected bridges, reports on 4 (3.36 per cent of the total inspected bridges) bridges was ‘unsatisfactory’, reports on other 23 bridges ‘satisfactory but require improvement’ and reports on the remaining 92 bridges were ‘satisfactory’.

Under PMGSY, the Ministry of Rural Development provides funds to the State government, and the PWD implements different schemes. The present PWD Minister of the BJP-led coalition government in Assam is Parimal Sauklabaidya. On him rests the responsibility of delivering on the objectives of PMGSY in the State.