The Union Ministry of Rural Development has raised objections to Chief Minister Raghubar Das programme to inaugurate roads constructed under Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) at Giridih on October 28.
The Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Rural development, Rajesh Bhushan, has shot off a letter to Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma, saying that local MPs should lay the foundation and also inaugurate the roads constructed under PMGSY.
The letter that also refers to earlier directive issued on July 28, 2011 and also July 27 this year issued to all the States, has said about the role of local people representatives. The missive has referred to Chief Minister Raghubar Das’ scheduled programme to inaugurate rural road and bridges worth Rs 2080 crore at Giridih.
Also, the foundation stones for 2100 km rural roads and 55 bridges were also to be laid on the occasion as per the Press release circulated by the Public Relations Department on October 24.
The release also said that besides the CM, Rural Development Minister Nilkanth Singh Munda and the all the concerned MPs, MlAs and District Board chairmen would remain present on the occasion.
However, a number of MPs, including Nishikant Dubey and Sunil Singh had brought it to the notice of the Centre, raising objections over the programme.
In the meanwhile, another Minister in the State Government Saryu Roy has while raising question over quality of work being done under Mango notified area over 40 kms stretch directed the officials concerned to exclude this road from the inauguration ceremony. Mango comes under Roy’s assembly constituency Jamshedpur (West).
The Minister in his complaint to the Road Construction Department Minister Nilkanth Singh Munda, REO Secretary Arun and Principal Secretary to the CM Sanjay Kumar has said that the online inauguration of the rural road not be done until the quality of the construction is ensured.
Roy besides, complaining about overall quality of work undertaken has also mentioned about incomplete drainage works and lesser width and length of the stretch than originally estimated.
The Minister has also advised the Government that the inauguration of roads under the PMGSY should only be done after proper quality checks as he had been getting several complaints about poor work being done across the State. He has also pitched for holding concerned engineers responsible for substandard construction in future.