THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Government Contractors Association has stopped work associated with the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana after seeking High Court intervention. The Centre owes Rs 630 crore and state government Rs 75 crore to contractors.
PMGSY was launched by the Government of India in 2000 to provide connectivity to unconnected habitation as part of a poverty reduction strategy.
The KGCA’s decision to stop work on the village roads is expected to affect a 600 km road network across the state. Except Alappuzha district, which has got only 20 km of work under PMGSY, the rest of the districts will be affected by the decision. KGCA president Varghese Kannampally told DC that funds work initiated in the current fiscal year were still pending.
“The Central government had allotted a paltry Rs 56 crore towards the work in Kerala which will not be enough. Contractors are supposed to maintain the village road stretch as it has got a five-year maintenance guarantee as well”, said Mr Kannampally.
Interestingly, if an estimate for a particular village road stretch comes to Rs 2 crore but there is a deviation, the cost is likely to go upto Rs 2.30 lakh.
The extra Rs 30 lakh would have to be borne by the state government. But a senior state government official told DC that since the central funds were being allocated into a common pool, the finance department had been dive-rting the funds for various other purposes which was affecting work like PMGSY.
