Litigations hampered PMGSY works: Biswajit
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, February 27 2019: A total of Rs 4199,88,01,000 was passed by the House for 7 demands during the ongoing Assembly session today.

During the discussion on demand for grants, Rural Development Minister Th Biswajit claimed that the State Government was not able to expedite the construction of roads in the remote areas of the valley and the hills under PMGSY due to presence of numerous pending cases.

The Minister continued that the State Government is working tirelessly to construct proper roads in the remote areas of the State.

The State will not develop if the hills and the valley are not equally tended to, the Minister said adding that taking this factor into account, the State Government has prioritized balanced development.

He said that there were around 40 pending cases concerning PMGSY road construction and the number has now been reduced to only 3/4.However, the Department has taken up 858 packages which also contain construction of short and long bailey bridges, he said, adding that a total of Rs 2764.64 crore was sanctioned for these packages.

The Minister maintained that no roads will be constructed under PMGSY which are not motorable and substandard, adding that befitting actions will be taken up against any person/official if they are found involved in any unethical practices.

Maintaining that there are often problems and complaints of contractors not performing their work dutifully, the Minister added that cancelling their contract and carrying out tender and other long processes for the work to continue again will on the other hand result in more grievances for the people.

He went on to state that in order to avoid going through the long and time consuming process again, the contractors are being instructed to finish the work on time and to address the grievances of the people.

Inspection by National quality monitor/State Quality Monitor will be carried out, before handing over the final bill, the Minister added.

Biswajit informed that the PMGSY tender for phase I, II and III have been completed.

New alignment work is being carried out along the road stretch from Chamu till Khayang presently, he said adding that the work is targeted for completion within the first week of April.

Speaking about MGNREGA, the Minister maintained that the scheme is one of the most important flagship programmes launched by the Government of India.

Under the said scheme, 25 days employment was provided in the year 2013-14, 22 days in 2014-15, 16 in 2015-16, 23 days in 2016-17 and only 12 days last year.

Only 12 days employment could be provided last year due to repeated floods, landslides and other natural calamities, the Minister added.

Pointing out that necessary budgets for 13 days employment have been included for the current financial year, Biswajit said that the funds for 7 days have been released.

To create liability, additional 11 days of employment have been provided to other districts.

It is believed that the Ministry will sanction around Rs 180 - 200 crore for the next instalment of the scheme, he added.

The Minister continued that under the directive of the Supreme Court and the Central Government, verification process for job card is underway to curb unethical withdrawal of money from MGNREGA which will ensure that the genuine job card holders get their deserved number of employment days in a year.

He said that all the job card holder in the valley area have been paid their salaries through EFMS.

However, due to lack of banking and internet facilities, only some areas of the hills, which include Ukhrul district's Chingai Block, Tamenglong Block, Tengnoupal Block, Tadubi Block and Lamka Block, are provided the EFMS facility on a pilot basis, the Minister added.

Taking the inconveniences faced in the hill areas into account, many areas are being relaxed from following the EFMS model, Biswajit said.

On the other hand, producing a cut motion against the demand, Congress MLA Alfred Kanngam Arthur said that road condition in his Kendra is deplorable.

There have been cases of pregnant women dying before reaching the hospital due to lack of proper transport facilities in the area, he said adding that even if the funds are there, the contractors have failed to do their job properly.

Even when complaints are lodged, the engineers completely ignore the grievances of the people, the MLA claimed.

Stressing on the need for the State Government to properly monitor the roads constructed under PMGSY in the remote parts of the hill areas, the Congress MLA appealed to the Speaker to accompany him to his Kendra and personally inspect the deplorable road conditions.

Regarding MGNREGA, the MLA said that the said scheme is extremely beneficial for the people of the hills but due to improper implementation, the people have been deprived of its benefits.

Even though it promises to provide 100 days of employment in a year, only 10-20 days employment is being given to the people, the MLA said, urging the Government to devise a policy to ensure atleast 50-60 days of employment for the people.

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