The UP government has come out with a new proposal which says all the construction work done by the PWD (Public Works Department) will be probed and authenticated by a third party. This will include roads, bridges, government buildings, and other construction work. The third party will be selected by the head of the PWD. The UP government has come out with an ordinance in this regard.
Third parties which will be roped in for examining the work done by the PWD will include IITs, NITs, Central Road Research Institute and regional engineering colleges.
According to the government order during the construction, these third parties will examine the work done by the department. These agencies will be paid from the total cost of the project, which will be kept around 1.5 per cent.
The UP government has taken this step following large scale complaints of bungling in PWD executed projects.
Not only this, the Allahabad High Court has directed the state government to probe Rs 1000 crore scam in construction and repair of roads done by the PWD in the state from 2011 to 2016 in 17 districts of the state based on the report of the CAG. Not only this, the court has directed the government to identify guilty officials and take necessary action against them.
Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on this probe has said construction works done during previous BSP and SP government’s rule has become easily means of taking kick-backs and minting money. The present government will not compromise with the quality of the work and so it has decided to rope in these agencies to examine the work done by the department.
Not only this, the construction work done by the previous SP government will be probed by a technical audit cell to ascertain whether any bungling of any sort had taken place or not.