The Chhattisgarh Government has started taking steps to settle the forest land disputes under the Forest Protection Act 1980 as early as possible for accelerating the process of laying of roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) (Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Project). A time-bound action plan has been chalked out for various departments to settle the issues relating to forest land expeditiously, officials stated.
Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand on Wednesday chaired a review meeting at the Mantralaya here for taking stock on the status of the rural road projects underway in the State. Dhand in a circular issued directed that all the road works should be completed in a time-bound manner. The Chief Secretary said that the land area should be inspected by the Forest Department officer on the next day itself. The District Collector should be informed if there is any delay. The concerned Collector should settle the issue in within 10 days. The time-frame has been fixed as per the hectares of forest land.
The officers of Panchayat and Rural Development Department in a State-level Standing Committee of Panchayat and Rural Development Department chaired by the Chief Secretary in December last year had taken stock of the status of roads and structures being constructed under PMGSY. It was informed in the meeting that 5124 permanent roads have been constructed in Phase 1 to 8 of the scheme. The total length of these roads is 22750 km. These include roads constructed in Phase 1 to 8 of the scheme besides roads constructed in different phases of Rural Road Connectivity Programme of the Asian Development Bank.
The construction of these roads has facilitated people of 7610 rural settlements for commuting in these all weather roads, it was informed. In the meeting it was also informed that construction of 337 roads was completed at a cost of Rs715 crore under PMGSY in the financial year 2013-14. The length of these roads is 1292 km and their construction has linked 969 settlements. As many as 37 roads have been sanctioned under the advance technology of PMGSY. Among these, construction of four roads has been completed while construction of 10 roads is under progress.
The process of tender agreement is completed for five roads while tenders for 18 roads are under process. In the meeting, the officers informed that proposals for construction of 294 roads worth Rs1023.51 crore and construction of 103 bridges worth Rs1318 crore was been sent to the Central government for financial year 2014-15.
Meanwhile, the State government, according to reports last year was unable to connect the rural villages in Naxal-infested districts with proper roads under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) even after best efforts as no contractors are now willing to work in the troubled zone. The government, according to reports, could not start construction over 200 sanctioned road projects under the PMGSY as no contractor came forward to take up the work following threat from the Maoists operating in the red terror zone in the State. The districts such as Bijapur, Sukma, Narayanpur, Dantewada and Bastar are worst affected and no contractor is able operate in these districts without sanction from the outlaws and hence contractors are not willing to take up road construction work in these districts, it was learnt.
Even in some cases it is learnt that the contractors came forward and got the tender for road construction but withdrew following threat from the rebels leaving the State administration with little option other than to look for alternatives to get the work done. The Government in a bid to generate interest among the contractors had also relaxed many norms for road construction but to no avail.
Each district in the red zone, is considering to set up a ‘Special Screening Committee’ under the chairmanship of district collector which will place contrition order directly to contractors who will be willing to take up the work. Meanwhile Principal Secretary Rural Development Department M K Raut also shot off a letter to this effect to district collectors in the affected areas to review the current status and take a final decision on the new proposal.
Under PMRGSY, over 4000 km rural roads have been built in other districts in the State where there is no Maoist influence. It may be recalled that Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari had convened a meeting on developing roads in the left Wing Extremism (lWE) areas on January 13 this year in Naya Raipur. Gadkari had made the in the meeting announcement to carry out construction of roads and bridges in the left Wing Extremism (lWE) areas on Mission Mode with Precast and other advance technologies with assistance from Military Engineering Services (MES) and DRDO.
He had stated that local contractors would also be engaged for construction of roads and other development works in violence-hit pockets. The Union had reviewed the progress of road infrastructure works in insurgency-hit eight states and heaped praise on security forces and construction agencies for executing the key road projects in red zones despite all odds. Gadkari had told the delegates at the review meet that around 75 per cent of the Naxal problem could be solved if a network of road and bridges is developed in insurgency-hit areas.
He had emphasized on using latest technology in road construction work and insisted that roads laying projects should be completed in a time-bound manner. In the meeting, a presentation on centrally-funded road projects in lWE affected areas of various states was screened. It was informed that the first phase of Road Requirement Plan (RRP) includes the proposal for repairing and upgrading 5477 kms of roads in 34 districts at the cost of nearly Rs7,300 crores. Out of the 5,469 kms of road approved, construction of 3,308 kms has been completed. In Chhattisgarh, construction of 806 kms (out of the 2019 kms of roads approved) has been completed.
In the meeting, PWD Minister of Uttar Pradesh Surendra Patel, PWD Minister of Madhya Pradesh Sartaj Singh, Chhattisgarh PWD Minister Rajesh Munat, Telangana PWD Minister T Nageshwar, Odisha Forest and Environment Minister Vikram Keshari Arya and Maharashtra PWD Minister Chandrakant Patil had also participated.