Defects galore in RGGVY projects in J&K

Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 7: The threat of losing three major projects under Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) is just the tip of an iceberg of prevailing non-seriousness in providing electricity to the people living in far-off and rural areas as large number of already executed projects in Jammu and Kashmir are under the grip of defects. Shockingly, no serious attention is being paid to get these defects rectified so as to ensure benefit to the targeted population.
In order to ensure proper quality of materials supplied as also the quality of their installation in the field, the Union Ministry of Power devised a Three Tier Quality Control Mechanism for RGGVY works. Under First Tier, Project Implementing Agency (PIA) is responsible for assuring quality control structure. The PIA is also required to ensure procurement of quality materials and in conformity to the prescribed standards during the construction stage by the workmanship of the project(s).
For Second Tier, Rural Electrification Corporation, the nodal agency of RGGVY works, is responsible for quality control mechanism.  The Corporation has outsourced six independent agencies to verify the quality of works and conduct pre-dispatch quality checks of major items.
Ministry of Power is responsible for Third Tier of quality control mechanism and for this five Independent Evaluators designated as National Quality Monitors have been engaged. No doubt, State’s Power Development Department has not been given any role in this mechanism but it too has supervisory role as projects are executed in the State and for its people.
“Though Legislators of the State have continuously been raising the issue of poor quality of works under RGGVY scheme during the last several years, the concerned authorities responsible for ensuring quality control and Power Development Department of the State are paying no attention towards this vital aspect”, official sources told EXCELSIOR. Due to this vast population of the State is unable to derive full benefit of the works carried out under RGGVY thereby defeating the objective behind this Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
This can be gauged from the official data, which paints dismal picture about response to the rectification of defects after the detection of the same at all the three levels of Quality Control Mechanism.
At the level of RQM (REC Quality Monitor), 140 and 184 villages respectively were inspected under Stage-I and Stage-II during the current year and a total of 3470 discrepancies were detected. However, only 1282 discrepancies were rectified because of varied factors including the slack supervisory role of the PDD authorities.
Similarly, at the level of National Quality Monitors (NQM), 252 defects were observed in the executed RGGVY works but only 47 were rectified by the Project Implementation Agency but State Government remained mute spectator to this despite being aware of the fact that non-rectification of defects would deprive people of the intended benefits of the scheme.
During the Third Party Inspection, 128 villages were inspected under Stage-2 and a total of 159 defects were noticed. Shockingly, only two of these were rectified. “These figures clearly indicate that rectification of defects is not a priority for those entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring quality works and State Government is not ready to ensure percolating the benefit of RGGVY Scheme to the targeted population by pressurizing the concerned authorities to strictly meet the guidelines of the scheme”, sources regretted.
According to the sources, defects remain unattended despite the stipulation in the quality control manual that the discrepancies and defects noted in the progress report(s) are to be rectified within a period of one month. “Since the beneficiaries of the scheme would be the people of the State residing in un-electrified and partially electrified areas, it becomes the foremost duty of those at the helm of affairs in the State Power Development Department to closely monitor the rectification of defects”, sources stressed, adding “the PDD authorities cannot remain mute spectator to the continuous defects”.

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