At a time when lakhs of pilgrims will be travelling to the valley in connection with Shri Amarnath Cave yatra, main as well as some link roads in prestigious areas of the city have been turned into a mess. Roads have been dug with the purpose of laying sewer line and traffic is diverted only to create chaos and confusion. There is total lack of coordination among the departments and agencies involved especially the NBCC and ERA who are trading accusations and counter accusations with no purpose but to pass the buck. This explains government’s utter failure in completing a given task within the stipulated time.
“Not only the stretch from Rehari Chowk to Shakuntala Chowk remains un-motorable, even the second tube of the B C Road, which was blocked for sewer line laying works, would remain in the damaged condition till ending August. Similar would be the fate of 21 roads having aggregate length of 12 kilometers— 9.60 kilometers under ERA and 2.40 kilometers under NBCC, which are presently damaged and yet to be handed over to PWD”, sources informed, adding “in view of the failure of the NBCC and ERA to complete the works in time and as per the specifications, it has been decided that the premixing works will be taken up after monsoon and meanwhile the roads will be maintained for traffic by these agencies”.
It is difficult to understand how lack of coordination among the agencies has been allowed and why there is no accountability whatsoever. The NBCC and ERA both appear to be insensitive to the inconvenience caused to the people by digging the roads and then leaving them half way and incomplete. If the authorities were convinced that laying of sewer line which meant digging up main traffic lines would be completed by June 10, then they are responsible for not keeping the time schedule. If they were in a doubt whether the work would be completed by 10 June, they should not have allowed starting the work before the rainy season was over. On close examination of the situation, one finds that there is something more than what meets the eye. Is it a dispute for sharing the spoils? Even a layman would say that before digging the roads to lay sewer line, the operators should know where underground water pipes or BSNL cables are laid. If they were provided with the lay-out maps in each case, why should they complain of encountering difficulties on account of these underground installations and make it a pretext for delaying the completion of laying sewer line? If they were not provided with the maps, why did they start digging the roads without the map? The chief of BSNL has said that his department was never informed nor asked about the digging and sewer laying work by NBCC or ERA. The result is that damage has been done to cables and people have complained about disconnection of their telephone limes.
One cannot help saying that this indicates utter callousness on the part of PWD, NBCC and ERA and others as well who are directly or indirectly linked to the project of laying sewer lines in the city. Dereliction of duty is inexcusable. Officials responsible for creating the chaos have to be brought to book, charged for negligence or incompetency and thus dealt with in accordance with the law of the land. Chief Minister has been repeatedly speaking about coordination among all concerned departments in certain sensitive and crucial projects. It has been observed that in most cases contractors begin with showing zeal for completing the assigned project within the stipulated time. But once the project is inaugurated by some VIP, the work slows down and the contractor cares for grabbing more contracts rather than bringing the one in hand to completion. In such cases the Government has no option but to follow the law and the rules and make concerned official accountable and answerable. There is every justification for the Government to take stringent action against the defaulters. Putting general public to inconvenience is as good as violating their civic rights. No responsible Government can tolerate it. There have been tall claims from various quarters in the Government that all preparations are in place for smooth Amarnath yatra. Even a joint secretary level of Union Home Ministry was in Jammu recreantly to overlook preparations for the safe conduct of the yatra. Obviously, he was not told about the condition of the roads dug and dismantled in connection with some developmental work. Here everybody seems to be playing tricks with others at the cost of inconvenience to the common people.
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