BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has pulled up the State Government for not responding to the complaints of public and addressing their grievances on rural roads constructed under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).
Though the State Government has been acknowledging receipt of complaints from individuals, it has failed to respond to the people concerned about the measures taken to redress their grievances.
“It emerged that a significant number of complaints/feedback has not been addressed after the lapse of stipulated time period in the State, “ a recent communication from the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) stated.
State quality coordinators (SQCs), the designated nodal officer for quality monitoring of PMGSY projects as well as redressal of grievances, are reported to have not responded to more than 300 complaints received from July to November.
As per the standard operating procedure (SOP), the SQC has to respond in the form of an interim reply within seven days or final reply within 60 days.
The SQCs have not given final reply to feedback received on slow pace of works, abandoned works and poor quality of works in 307 cases, official sources said.
The MoRD has launched a mobile application ‘Meri Sadak’ to receive feedback from people on PMGSY roads.
Taking a cue from the World Bank assisted-rural roads projects which have ensured citizen monitoring as a key component for evaluating the quality of work, the Rural Development Ministry has asked all the States to give wide publicity to ‘Meri Sadak’ mobile App.
The objective of the move is to strengthen the quality control arrangements at all levels, keeping huge investment in construction of roads.
A three-tier quality control system has been put in place to ensure quality in road works. The first tier is at the district project implementation unit (PIU), the second involves quality monitoring at the State level, and the third tier is of National Quality Monitors who conduct random tests on the quality of work.