Nuagaon: Irregularities in ongoing road laying works at various locations of Nuagaon block in Nayagarh district under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) have sparked strong resentment amongst the local villagers.
Despite repeated complaints in this regard, department officials are not showing seriousness towards resolving these sensitive issues. Notably, the Rural Development department is supposed to inspect the road laying works after those are allocated to qualifying contractors through tendering process.
It is alleged that the road laying works are of very low quality in many places. Local villagers have been running from pillar to post complaining about the low quality of work, but all in vain. On the other hand, the department officials are trying to avoid the complainants saying that there is no low quality of work anywhere.
Villagers of Raktapata, Minagadia, Tuniapada and Belabani have written to the Chief Minister, departmental minister, district Collector and local MLA complaining in this connection.
According to sources, the road under construction ought to be of 3.2 km long, of which 2.135 km length would be of black top and the remaining 1.065 km would be concrete. Moreover, as per the work order, there would be 11 culverts at specified places on the road. The cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 150.11 lakh.
It is alleged that, out of the 11 culverts, only six have been constructed and one old culvert has been repaired.
When contacted for his comment, Rural Development department SDO, Narayan Murmu said, “The black top laying work has been done so far in my presence. There is no question of irregularities in the work”.
PNN