In a classic case of bureaucratic red tape and official apathy towards general public, the officials of Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) have failed to even start work on patch work activity on roads of Dehradun before the rainy season. With the North West Monsoon well and truly settling in, the work would now start at the end of rainy season which means that the people of Dehradun would have to commute on pot holed roads for next four months. It has happened even as the MCD had allotted a sum of Rs 2 lakh to every councillor for patch work of roads in his area. The MCD passed the proposal in first week of June but the officials took too long to prepare estimates and in meanwhile monsoon arrived.
Notably, the MCD only has four Junior Engineers (JE) for preparing estimates for all 100 wards of the city.
When contacted, Councillor of Dhamawala, Ninu Sehgal said, “No work to fix the patches has been done by the MCD. The main purpose of the budget allotment and the proposal was to fix the road patches before monsoon which sadly has not started yet. Officials should be more focused on the work and the timeline of its completion.”
Another councillor from rest camp, Archana Kapoor said, “No one will blame the officials but every person in our ward will blame us for the waterlogging problems which they will face this season like in the past. The patches on the roads, especially during the rainy season, can cause accidents. When we reach to officials regarding the problem they always say that estimate is getting prepared. Now with the setting in of monsoon the Junior Engineers of MCD are stating that no work can be conducted during the monsoon season. Hopefully, this work will be done before monsoon next year.”
An observer also stated that during the monsoon season ,the patches in the road get widen up and being covered with water increase the risk of accidents.
When contacted by The Pioneer, the Mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ said, “The work is in progress, we are making a list of wards in which the roads need urgent repairs. Work in such places would start without delay”.