Gurdaspur DC cracks the whip on PWD officials

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, June 21

Bowing to intense public pressure, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) has finally cracked the whip by directing PWD officials to place before him the entire record pertaining to the money spent on re-carpeting of the 22-km Gurdaspur-Mukerian road in the last five years.

Complaints had been regularly pouring in on the dilapidated condition of this road which is also a connecting link to the country’s biggest Army bases, Tibri Cantonment. PWD officers continued to ignore the issue.

Last week, Veenu Malhotra and his wife were driving from Mukerian to Gurdaspur. In their 30-minute journey, at times extended to an hour, the front tyres of their car got damaged. Interestingly, at the tyre-repair shop they were met by three more distraught families, all of whom were trying to straighten their vehicles’ bent tyre rims.

PWD XEN Jatinder Mohan refused to comment saying “he had just joined.”

The movement of the Army’s hardware has also been affected. Any incident near the International Border (IB) will warrant the Army’s presence. Unfortunately, its movement is sure to be impeded. When three Pakistan terrorists attacked the Dinanagar police station on June 27, 2015, the Army was asked to quell the challenge. However, jawans and their vehicles, carrying arms and ammunition, had a hard time in reaching the site.

In 2018, when then CM Capt Amarinder Singh’s entourage was to take this way to reach Gurdaspur, the PWD quickly did some patch work.

“The PWD should understand the strategic importance of this road. The Army will find itself shackled if it decides to move,” said an ex-Army man. Some commuters say it will be in the fitness of things if PWD minister Harbhajan Singh ETO himself drives his car to understand the gravity of the problem.

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