Mokokchung, 24 September (MTNews): The Nagaland Contractors and Suppliers Union (NCSU) have submitted a memorandum to the Minister of Rural Development, Government of Nagaland, requesting intervention in the allocation of work orders for the third phase of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in Nagaland.
The NCSU’s memorandum underscored the importance of ensuring a fair and practical allocation of work orders under the PMGSY program in Nagaland, emphasizing the need to rectify perceived anomalies in the current allocation process.
While acknowledging the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India for implementing PMGSY in the country since 2000-2001, adding that the people of rural India greatly benefited during PMGSY phase 1 and 2, the NCSU flagged certain concerns with regard to implementation of PMGSY phase 3 in Nagaland.
A primary concern raised by the NCSU was the clustering of projects by the state government. This approach combined multiple districts into a single package, a move that the union argued was impractical and could jeopardize the success of the PMGSY program in Nagaland.
The NCSU said that it was a setback that the NPWD (Roads & Bridges) on behalf of the Rural Development department floated NIT (Notice Inviting Tender) for 40 projects clustered into 16 packages. It said, “most of the district has been clustered together with another district which is practically not possible by any super contractors to complete work as per schedule.” This, NCSU said, would rather lead to “a total failure of this popular PMGSY programme in the state of Nagaland.”
The NCSU also drew a comparison with previous phases of PMGSY, where NIT were invited as per project. In 2017 and 2019, the number of packages matched the number of firms awarded work orders.
According to NCSU, in the year 2017, there were 19 packages in various districts. Accordingly, 19 firms were awarded work orders as per merit of bidding. Similarly, it said, in the year 2019, 13 work orders were accordingly awarded for 13 packages “as per bidding.”
However, the NCSU noted anomalies in the structure of PMGSY-III Batch-I for 2023-2024.
The NCSU informed that, in this connection, they had made formal representations to the Chief Minister of Nagaland and the Chief Engineer (R&B) PWD Government of Nagaland. Their appeals included requests to break up the 40 packages into “one firm/one work order” and a temporary halt to the PMGSY-III Batch-I 2023-2024 until anomalies were addressed.
Additionally, the NCSU referenced guidelines issued by the National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA). These guidelines recommended incorporating new technologies and utilizing plastic waste in road construction, aiming to attract competent contractors equipped with modern machinery.
“States and Union Territories would mandatorily construct roads under PMGSY-III by also using plastics waste within the minimum 15% of road length prescribed for new technologies as envisaged in the detailed guidelines issued by NRIDA,” NCSU said.
NCSU said that, meanwhile, the NPWD (R&B) floated NIT for PMGSY-III batch-1 2023-2024 on 25 August 2023, which it said undermined their representation.
Therefore, the NCSU said it wrote another representation to Chief Engineer PWD (R&B) Government of Nagaland on dated 6 September 2023 to keep in abeyance the NIT for PMGSY-III Batch-I 2023-2024, till rectification of anomalies were done.
As such, the NCSU appealed for the intervention of the Minister of Rural Development to address “this step motherly treatment to the genuine registered contractors in Nagaland” and take necessary actions in the best interest of registered contractors in Nagaland.