PAC asks ministry to check corruption in rural road scheme

In his address to the National Conference on Rural Roads last May, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that corruption and lack of quality assurance were major reasons for poor quality roads. “Corruption in road construction projects has spread like cancer to every corner of our vast country. I sincerely hope we can implement both PMGSY and Bharat Nirman without this affliction, and in a transparent and accountable manner,” the PM had said.

Referring to the above statement, the PAC said: “The Committee is unable to appreciate the sophistry in interpretation imputed by the Ministry to the Prime Minister’s comments which on plain reading clearly indicates that roads constructed under PMGSY was also included in the ambit of his public statement.”

Referring to the fact that hardly 24 per cent of the targeted 1.41 lakh rural habitations had been provided connectivity up to March 2005, since the launch of the scheme in 2000, the PAC said the delayed launch in the initial phase had necessitated the scheme’s extension till 2009. As per the initial plan, all habitations with populations of over a thousand people were to be connected by all-weather roads by the end of 2003.