Financial crunch stalls repair of roads

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, February 10

Most rural roads in the Palampur region need immediate repair. After the monsoon, the state Public Works Department (PWD) has not taken up the repair and maintenance of roads, which were damaged because of heavy rain and flash floods. The acute financial crisis in the PWD is the reasons behind the poor conditions of roads.

Palampur- Alampur road, Palampur- Panchrukhi road, Palampur-Mehanja road, Jaisinghpur- Alampur road, Baijnath- Utrala road, Baijnath-Sansal road, Palampur-Bundla road and Palampur-Kandi roads are in bad shape, as these roads are full of potholes, resulting in accidents daily.

Though senior officers of the PWD are well versed with the situation, in the past five months no steps have been taken to repair these roads causing inconvenience to the public.

On visiting rural roads in the upper and lower areas of Palampur, Jaisinghpur and Baijnath divisions, it was noticed that the situation was alarming. In many areas, the people said they had visited the MLAs and ministers many times seeking immediate repairs of roads, but all in vain.

Two MLAs from these areas admitted that they had written to the state government many times and also apprised the Executive Engineers of the respective divisions of the PWD regarding the poor conditions of roads, but nothing was done. Many villagers said if the roads were not repaired they would boycott the elections.

However, a senior officer of the PWD said because of winters, the repair work was not being undertaken. He said the department had planned to repair all roads after March.