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| Avoidable delays add to public woes | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Vaibhavi Chandel
JAMMU, Mar 6: Notwithstanding enormous funds being pumped into the schemes for the development and upgradation of various amenities in urban, sub-urban and rural areas of the Jammu region over the years, the problems being faced by the people show no signs of relief. Instead of getting respite, as expected after spending whopping amount, the problems continue to get accumulated.
The emergence of Economic Reconstruction Agency had rekindled a ray of hope, as this scheme under the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Programme of the trouble-torn Jammu and Kashmir but the implantation has left many questions unanswered. The Agency, ERA known in common
parlance, has taken up several road development and sewerage projects in the city of Jammu, work on which is continuing for months together. The main grouse of the people is that if why a number of schemes are taken and stretched for long durations to complete. True that works might be allotted to contractors but the supervising and monitoring mechanism being scarce there seems to be no follow up for ensuring the completion of works in stipulated time-frame.
In the city, one gets astonished to see the works taken up early last year still within the completion stage. Some of the areas in the old city present devastated look as the construction material and dug
ditches having been obstructing the movement of the pedestarians as well as vehicle operators.
“We have been given to understand that there is no dearth of funds for the projects that have been taken up but still the work is not being carried out as it should be. The foremost reason appears to be
the lackadaisical approach of the contractors who generally remain in search of new assignments from the Agency”, said Sanjeev Malhotra, a former engineer, who enumerated various instances of incomplete works in the congested city.
Subash Sharma, a resident of Kanu-Chak of the Jammu outskirts, referred to the construction of a culvert on Annand Nagar-Kanuchak bye-pass road that had been taken up in the middle of last year. As a
consequence of the construction and upgradation, the entire traffic to Kanuchak belt and its advanced villages had been diverted via Gole-Gujral. “During the scorching heat and rainy days, the people had
to brave many obstacles to go for their work places, schools, business etc braving many difficulties”, Subash says, adding that despite the completion of the bridge a fortnight ago, the connected road is now irritant.
Subash and many of his friends wondered as to why the upgradation of the road and the construction of the culvert bridge were not taken up simultenously to ensure the passage on the much-busy road in the shortest possible time. He said that in the wake of road closure, the public transport plying via Gole Gujral can be seen over-loaded, with double the capacity of the passengers huddled inside the matadors causing embarrassment to standing women passengers.
“If there would have been coordination between various agencies of the government, this vital aspect could have been sorted out, one by expediting the work on the road and another by deploying more matadors to cater to the needs of the people”, Surinder Kumar, another resident
said, pointing to the nexus between the officials which retards monitoring of overloading or pressing into service of additional buses to benefit the already accredited vehicle operators.
An engineer working with ERA, however, maintained that the endeavour of the Agency is to ensure completion of works within stipulated time-frame. He agreed that certain works get delayed but attributed it to the limitations of work-force and problems being created by certain
affected residents of the concerned areas. He stated that periodicals reviews are being taken up to assess the pace of work on various schemes.
Questioning the pragmatism of the engineers concerned, Kapil Saini, a resident of Kabir Colony in the Bohri area, referred to the closure of Poonch-House- Kabir Colony road as a little drain had to be covered, which could have been done in patches so that the transport movement
could not have been affected. “Day by day the people are becoming conscious, which will surely help in extracting work from the executing agencies in shortest possible time”, he maintained.
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