Regional Review meeting of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) Phase I, and the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and its National Rural Road Development Agency (NRRDA) have come down with a heavy hand on the State Government for inexplicably lagging behind in meeting the targets of road connectivity particularly in identified districts of Doda, Kathua, Poonch, Kargil, Kupwara, Rajouri, Srinagar and Udhampur which have less than 40 per cent of connectivity.
The PMGSY targets have been preponed from 2022 to 2019 and consequently entire Government machinery has been geared up to meet the targets within the specific time schedule. Monitoring agency has advised the State Government to achieve the average number of 33 habitations to be connected every month in 2017-18 so as to achieve the 100 percent physical target by March 2018.The target length of road works, to be constructed during 2017-18, is 1,800 kilometers. Enormous work lies ahead for the State as it is expected to complete 1,144 roads/bridges of 2,527 sanctioned and 7,118 km length constructed out of 13,672 kms. Nearly 6,554 km of the sanctioned length is still pending for completion.
Apart from more than fifty per cent of the works still pending the MoRD has expressed dissatisfaction over the maintenance of the roads that have been completed under the PMGSY. Shockingly, during the current year no record of road maintenance has been produced against an allotted fund of 6.53 crore rupees. State Government needs to focus its attention on repair and maintenance of the constructed roads. The officials have also reprimanded the State Government for making payments to at least 26 contractors without inspection by State Quality Control Monitor.
The monitoring report on the performance in the area of Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana in respect of the State of Jammu and Kashmir is far from being satisfactory. There is huge deficit in meeting the targets set forth for the project. On an average less than half of the works have been done on roads and bridges that had to be taken in hand. Now that the Central Government has decided to meet the targets in 2019 instead of 2022, it is but natural that the Central agencies will be activated to inspect, inquire, advise and report on the performance of the State on various Centrally Sponsored Schemes. The PMGSY is of considerable importance to the rural India and the State and it has come under the radar.
As said, the State Government has a big deficit in this sector though something has been achieved. Therefore the Union Government has pointed out precisely where the deficit lies, how much and what should be done to move onwards to reach the targets. In this connection it is important first to know why there has been a shortfall in the completion or taking up of the centrally sponsored schemes. This is a recurring feature with the State. Long back, in these columns, we had suggested that an administrative committee should be constituted to go into the reasons why centrally sponsored developmental schemes are not brought to completion in time and are delayed indefinitely. The committee would go into all aspects of the issue and submit its report. Perhaps that did not suit the Government and the matter has been left to linger on. It is important to find out the reason why these specific schemes never meet the time frame. The reason has to be found and it is not enough to remain content with the rhetoric that because there is unrest in the State, therefore, developmental works are adversely affected. Only three out of 22 districts of the State have been witnessing some turmoil and unrest. There are other and more significant reasons for inordinate delay in bringing these schemes to completion. Once the reasons are identified, it will be easy to tackle them in a proper manner so that developmental works are not adversely affected.
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