Villagers cry foul over PMGSY road works

The 5.99 km road constructed under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana at a cost of Rs 4.96 crore is of poor quality, alleged the villagers of Taluru.

The road connects five villages including Kudluru and Handli.

The works were initiated in September 2020 by MP Pratap Simha and MLA Appachu Ranjan.

The work was carried out by contractor Shivaleela Suresh Sajjan, engineers Prabhu and Poovaiah, with the grants released by the Ministry of Rural Development.

Villagers T S Ravi, Puneeth and Kumar from Taluru, Nithin, Mallikarjun Mohan Kumar, Umashankar, Homesh, Puneeth, Harsha, Vishwajith and Darshan from Managali village and Shivu from Bettadalli alleged that the construction work was done in an unscientific way by laying a mixture of 40 mm and 20 mm stones before applying asphalt.

The width of the road, which is supposed to be 32 foot, is not uniform in all places. Spaces have been left in front of many houses. The drain work has not been completed. There is no space for stormwater to flow on the side of the road, they said.

The work has been carried out in a hurry as it has to be completed before August 13, 2021, said the villagers.

The road has been damaged on both sides, only in 15 days, once the vehicles started plying on the road.

The villagers have urged the contractors and engineers to carry out the asphalting work in Bettadalli and Beekalli villages once again and to do the drain work before that.

Electricity poles should be mounted, they added.

They pointed out that the five villages were sanctioned with the road after 25 years.