Parliamentary panel flags poor road quality, delay in construction under central scheme

Compromises in the quality of roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana are unacceptable, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development said in a report tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The scheme, launched in 2000 by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, aims to construct all-weather roads in order to provide connectivity to rural areas.

In its report, the 31-member panel led by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Karunanidhi said that the members of the committee having seen the ground reality in their constituencies have repeatedly raised the “nagging issue of poor quality of roads”.

It said: “Instances are galore wherein the attention of the committee have been drawn towards the poor road materials used in the construction of roads at many places which are not able to sustain the rigours of weather and traffic volume even for one season and are washed away with the onset of monsoon.”

The panel also said that a mandatory provision under the scheme of setting up laboratories at the ground level for quality control has not been implemented at many places. The on-site laboratories are meant to assess the quality of roads and the raw material used for them.

The committee demanded that the laboratories be set up, and remarked that if...

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