Under fire for poor quality of roads being constructed under the Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) in the State, the Government is in the process of hiring an independent agency to ensure permanent quality check.

The Rural Works Department has initiated in this direction and it is expected that the agency would start functioning from this financial year itself. Top sources in the Department while admitting that there was no coordination between State Quality Management and National Quality Management, the two agencies doing the mandatory quality checks of the rural roads, said that there was need for a unified mechanism.

“The Department has started working in that direction looking at the intensity of complaints coming in about PMGSY. Clauses and terms of conditions for it are being drafted. The independent agency is most likely to be hired and would besides, providing quality report from ground also keep a tab on every work taking place under the scheme in every division. Quality of every road coming up under the PMGSY would be checked and reported in a centralised manner so there is no duplication or mismatch,” said Anugrah Prasad, State Quality Coordinator for the rural road scheme in the State.

Substandard quality of PMGSY roads has been coming into light every now and then from all parts of the State and matter was even raised in the Assembly. A high-level Assembly committee was formed after uproar in the House which visited and checked 10-11 roads in Gumla.

The committee, in its recommendation, presented before the Speaker recently has also asked for an independent agency to keep regular tab on the rural roads besides, criticising construction agencies such as National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC), Hindustan Steelworks Construction limited (HSCl), Ircon and National Projects Construction Corporation limited (NPCC).

latest on this front came a letter from Civil Supplies Minister Saryu Roy, who has asked the State Government not to inaugurate a 40 kms stretch falling in his constituency because of poor quality of work being done.

“We have presented a detailed report which says that the agencies did not bother about quality; there is no administrative control of the Government over them and lack of credibility over the reports by State Quality Management and National Quality Management. They just do table reporting in most of the cases to the benefit of the contractors. Besides thorough probe, we have called for an independent agency for PMGSY, stopping sub-contractors from working on behalf of the main contractor and some correction in tender clauses,” said Radha Krishna Kishore, one of the members of the panel that also included Bimla Pradhan, Ashok Kumar and Shiv Shankar Oraon.

“The Government has acted on the report and forwarded the works done in Gumla for a probe by Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB). We have also decided that no new road under the PMGSY would be constructed by NBCC, NPCC and HSCl in future. Only Ircon along with REO would conduct the exercise for the 14th phase of PMGSY in Jharkhand,” said a top official of the Department.