news details |
|
|
| Corrupt, inefficient AEEs, XEns ruin PMGSY scheme; Centre declines second installment | | Would someone fix responsibility? | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 7: Executive Engineers (XEns) and Assistant Executive Engineers (AEEs) of Roads and Buildings Department who use all their influence to get a prize posting are in for trouble for having failed to execute centrally sponsored Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and fudging records to show expenditure when the work for the same has not been done on ground.
An assessment report of the union ministry for rural development has put a question mark on the efficiency and honesty of the XEns and AEEs who have served in the PMGSY wing of the Roads and Buildings Department. If the report is any indicator, state government has no option but to crack whip on the inefficient and corrupt AEEs and XEns.
There may be delay in cracking the whip due to ongoing unrest but the report has cast aspirations on the work and conduct of the officials of Roads and Buildings department, deserving immediate action by the state government. According to the report, such has been callousness and inefficiency of officials of Roads and Buildings department that second instalment of Rs. 959.13 crore in respect of Phase VI to VIII and first instalment of Phase IX was not released by the union ministry.
The report has categorically said that the instalment was not released due to poor progress in completion of road projects and non-fulfilment of the conditions laid down for release of second instalment. It needs to be mentioned here that funds under PMGSY to the states are released in two equal instalments. While the first instalment is released at 50 percent of cleared value of projects (or annual allocation, whichever is lower), the release of second instalment is subject to utilisation of 60 percent of the available funds and completion of at least 80 per cent of the road works awarded in the year previous to the preceding year.
In the case of Jammu and Kashmir, report has said that funds were not released due to non-submission of documents and non-fulfilment of the conditions laid down for release of second instalment by the states and slow progress of road works. It has further said that requisite records of subsidiary accounts for 2010-11 to 2013-14 were not prepared at state level and the chartered accountant finalized balance sheets without preparing the receipt and payment accounts, income and expenditure accounts and other subsidiary accounts.
Apart from these shortcomings, it was further noticed that in five districts namely Anantnag, Rajouri, Kishtwar, Kulgam and Kathua; in eight roads, actual length was found to be in excess by a total of 19.27 km whereas,a in 23 roads, the length was found to be short by 57.76 km. In Anantnag and Rajouri districts, seven road works being less than 1.5 km from all-weather road were constructed at a cost of Rs. 6.97 crore.
In six districts; 44 road projects were not completed even after a delay of over five years and incurring expenditure of Rs. 102.34 crore due to land dispute, non-clearance of road projects from forest department and non-availability of take off points for roads. In 10 roads, against 269 bridges, only 170 were constructed while 99 others were pending. Not only this, the bridges which were shown as completed were not motorable.
When the engineers were asked about incomplete roads and bridges, they gave silly reasons and when pressed further, they talked about public interference, land dispute, non-payment of compensation for structure and forest clearance. However, locals rebutted all these silly reasons and said that the delay was primarily because of the inefficiency and corrupt practices of the AEEs and XENs made incharge of the projects under PMGSY across the state.
The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is a centrally sponsored flagship scheme which was introduced on December 2000 to provide all-weather rural road connectivity and to access eligible unconnected habitations as a strategy for poverty alleviation and to overcome deficiencies in rural road planning, inadequacy and unpredictability of funds and lack of maintenance of rural roads. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
