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| DPR's not being made public by PMGSY | | People kept in dark , RTI violated | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, May 31: At a time when Government organisations are claiming transparency and accountability , the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) in J&K is not at all making its Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of different road projects public thus keeping citizens in total dark. This act is also an open violation of section 4 of J&K and central RTI laws as well.
As reported already PMGSY has not been able to create its separate official websites. The offices of Chief Engineers in Kashmir and Jammu division have no official website and thus the DPRs have become a secret document which otherwise has to be available in public domain. To get access to DPR of Chadoora Surasyar Branwar road project in Budgam , an information seeker had to file an RTI and the officer has asked the information seeker to pay Rs 350 as fees for the said document after an expiry of 30 days.
PMGSY executes many projects across J&K , but people are unaware about the specifications of the works , kind of material to be used , height and width of retaining walls, thickness of blacktopping material , width of road and many other things. Had these DPRs been made available on the official websites of PMGSY chief engineers or DC offices people would have come to know the actual details and during road construction. The well informed citizens could impress upon contractors and engineers to work as per DPR specification.
"As these DPRs are not available anywhere people can't even argue with the executing agencies who in many areas use all the sub-standard material which was exposed recently on Chadoora Branwar road. Why shall we have to file an RTI and get copy of DPR which is provided after a 30 days wait and on payment of fees" said Syed Farhat an aggrieved RTI applicant
As reported PMGSY Executive Engineer Budgam in his RTI response had accepted the fact that Chief Engineer's office in Kashmir has no official website. Aggrieved information seeker Farhat alleges that substandard material is being used in the road project especially the retaining walls , drains etc have already cracked. In addition to it he wanted to know implementation of section 4 of J&K RTI Act 2009 wherein all Govt offices are supposed to have a well maintained official website so as to upload various public information including DPRs of projects and other details of works being taken up by engineering departments. As the DPR of the Chadoora Surasyar Branwar road was not available anywhere, Farhat sought same under RTI and also sought the details of PMGSY's official website in Kashmir and method and manner of making pro active disclosure of information under section 4 of State RTI law. To this PIO/ Executive Engineer PMGSY Budgam very absurdly said "Chief Engineer PMGSY Kashmir is not having any official website, Technical Officer to Chief Engineer is the public information officer (PIO) in the office of Chief Engineer Kashmir who can disclose information under JK RTI Act 2009". |
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