Incomplete five Astro-turfs

Slated to be all complete by March 2021, three astro-turfs of football and two astro-turfs for hockey including replacement of obsolete turf of KK Hakku Stadium Jammu by Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council appear all to be incomplete and, therefore, next to impossible to be ready by that date. The project costing Rs. 27 crore for laying the said turfs was started in February 2019 and these two years have proved to be insufficient for doing the assigned job such is the level of non-seriousness of the executing agency. As on date, only the one at Parade Ground Jammu, work is underway while at Baba Ghulam Shah Baba University Rajouri and Khelo India Ground Nagrota worth Rs.5 crore each has not been yet started. Apart from other outcomes, it all denotes how much was sports and its promotion getting the preferred and desired attention from the concerned authorities despite, massive funds being kept at the disposal of the Sports Council. Tenders for the works are ”floated” but not being responded and no monitoring or feeling serious about the job have all contributed towards the mess that this project of Rs.27 crore has witnessed. This project could not even avail of the benefits of the languishing projects scheme when the then Governor Satya Pal Malik had cleared many suspended and held up projects amounting to Rs.266 crore in February 2019. What is needed is to pull up the lethargic and unresponsive executing agency so as to speed up the process of work and the concerned authorities to remain in constant touch so that in the reasonable minimum time the job was completed.