Year on Year Scam

Laying/relaying roads in the cities, towns and state highways is perhaps the biggest scam in India that is going on for decades. Roads are laid that get washed away at the lightest of down pours. If the rainfall is incessant the roads become un-motorable and are similar to unpaved dirt roads in the country side. All these are constructed again to get washed away during the subseqent rainy season.

Bureaucrats/engineers and contractors collude to do a shabby job of maintaining and construction of roads year on year and share the bounty, we hardly hear about cases of corruption being registered against any contracting agency with respect to quality of road construction. Does that mean all quality standards are met? Where are the state and central vigilance commissions?

Even the capital city is not spared, look at the condition of roads in New Delhi after this year’s monsoon. Do we really deserve the tag of an aspiring super power? We can’t get the basics right – roads, drains, footpaths, water supply etc. Corruption is breaking the back bone of the country.

With 2.1 million miles of roadways India has the third largest road network, imagine the amount of money that gets allocated for new construction and regular maintenance, it must be staggering. Not sure what percent of this changes hands as “baksheesh”.

There is no need of an RTI application to get details about quality of Road construction it is too evident, poor engineering, indifference to quality and corruption are the reasons.

Roads are the backbone for a vibrant economy and our administrators fail to get it.