Panchayat Raj Minister Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu has warned of stern action against engineering officials and contractors if they fail to complete 45 of the 92 pending roads under PM Gramin Sadak Yojana by March.
At a meeting with engineering officials and Principal Secretary K.S. Jawahar Reddy on Tuesday, he said the 45 works were worth Rs.100 crore and form part of the 253 sanctioned to the district in 2012-13 at a cost of Rs.528 crore. Of the 92 works, 80 are in Paderu sub-division.
His review revealed that one of the main reasons was the delay in getting clearance from the Forest Department. The Minister asked officials of that department to help tackle the technical issues related to online payment.
The Minister said though the target for internal roads was reduced to 339 km from 500 km only 280 km was completed. Mr. Patrudu’s review also covered aspects related to delay in payment of bills to contractors and taking off those negligent in the execution. Mr. Reddy directed Engineer-in-Chief C.V.S. Rama Murthy to hold fortnightly reviews in Visakhapatnam and, the district administration to ensure supply of cement at the rate finalised by the government. Collector Pravin Kumar asked officials and contractors to give a list of works facing problems from Maoists so as take it up with Police officials. Panchayat Raj Superintendent Engineer Gajendra, ZP CEO Jayaprakash Narayan, Rural Water Supply Superintendent Engineer Prabhakara Rao and Forest Department officials participated.
