Poor quality of roads draws CM’s wrath

The poor quality of roads constructed by private contractors in different parts of Punjab drew the ire of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday.

The state government is also “very concerned” about the content posted by deputy commissioners (DCs) on their social media handles, according to sources.

With videos of the newly laid roads going viral on social media, including a video of a person scrapping the top layer of a road with his bare hands in Sangrur district, CM Mann warned the DCs to monitor the construction work properly.

At least two DCs told The Tribune that during the video conference with the CM today, Mann was livid that despite his public proclamations about how he was ensuring that only good quality of roads would henceforth be constructed in Punjab, the DCs were unable to deliver on his (Mann’s) promises. Mann has been advocating the use of artificial intelligence in road construction to ensure high quality work and also save money.

“You must check the quality of construction work yourself and only then release the funds. Immediately register FIRs against those constructing poor quality roads and blacklist these contractors,” he ordered.

Later, Chief Secretary KAP Sinha held a separate video conference with officials, wherein he pulled up the DCs for being careful about what they posted on by their official social media handles.

Earlier, the DC of Sangrur was pulled up by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for posting comments against a top functionary in the Central government. Yesterday, another Deputy Commissioner, hosted the meeting of the Chairman of Commission for Air Quality Management, where “domestic inadvertent remarks” were reportedly aired. This post was later deleted from the officers’ official handle. The officers have been clearly told to check and monitor all that goes on their social media handles.