AMRUT Mess: Buck Stops At Asst Commissioners | Nagpur News

Nagpur: A day after union minister and city MP Nitin Gadkari expressed anguish over city roads being damaged due to utility services, poor restoration of roads dug up under the AMRUT scheme came under sharp criticism at the NMC general body meeting on Monday, prompting Mayor Neeta Thakre to order strict accountability of civic officials and contractors responsible for delayed or substandard restoration.Thakre directed the municipal administration to fix responsibility on the concerned assistant commissioners for monitoring restoration work and initiate penalties against agencies found guilty of negligence. She also directed officials to prepare a standard operating procedure (SOP) for restoration of roads after completion of AMRUT-related works. The work is being carried out by NMC’s public health engineering department headed by superintending engineer Shweta Banerjee.The Mayor said a definite time limit must be prescribed for restoring roads after they are dug up so that citizens do not have to suffer for prolonged periods. She further directed officials to take complaints from citizens seriously, particularly when residents submit photographs showing poor restoration or negligence.Thakre warned that if officials ignore such complaints, fail to verify them on site or provide incorrect information about restoration, strict action should follow. She stressed that accountability could not be shifted between departments and contractors when citizens were facing inconvenience and accidents.The issue was raised through an adjournment motion by corporator Abhijit Jha, who alleged that roads excavated under AMRUT had been restored so poorly that vehicles were skidding and accidents were occurring regularly.Jha said he had repeatedly raised the issue over the past three months, citing stretches from Dada Ramdham to Ravi Nagar and from CB Club to Mother Dairy, where work was allegedly suspended for two to three months. He claimed that even after restoration, the road conditions remained poor.Jha said one affected stretch was barely 200 metres from the Chief Minister’s residence and alleged that despite complaints, officials had claimed that restoration had been completed. He said GPS-based photographic evidence showed otherwise.Ruling party leader Narendra Borkar alleged that contractors awarded AMRUT works were assigning portions of the work to petty contractors, raising concerns over quality control.Opposition leader Sanjay Mahakalkar alleged that the PHE department head was unaware of works being executed on site. He also claimed that the DPR for AMRUT 2.0 had reportedly been prepared using Google Maps, alleging that poor planning and execution were causing hardship to citizens.Following the debate, Thakre directed municipal commissioner Vipin Itankar to convene a meeting with the agencies concerned and issue necessary instructions, while warning NMC officials to regularly inspect sites and monitor contractors.