The man, accompanied by residents of Canacona, came with utensils, vegetables and bedding ready to stay at the PWD office, but what this also brought out was the callousness of the authorities to the plight of the people who have no alternative but to drive on roads that are not worthy of being used.
The road stretch in question is not some interior section that has remained neglected for years, but the road from Margao to Canacona, that is used by lakhs of people daily. A site inspection by the new PWD Minister found no potholes but discovered that the upper concrete slab surface has been washed away. As an immediate measure, a short tender will be issued and the contractor who defaulted on the road repair will not be allowed to participate and will also be placed on the black list. The road will be repaired by allotting the tender to another contractor. For motorists and commuters on this road the repair work should bring them a more comfortable ride, but there are other issues involved.
The excuse that has been proffered is that while the Public Works Department is being blamed for the condition of the road, but the contractor who was awarded the work did not carry it out. The Minister went on to say that government officers should not be blamed for the contractor refusing to carry out the work. Surely it is not just the contractor who was to undertake the repairs who is at fault here. There has to be somebody in the department who has supervised the original work of construction and perhaps also of repairs to the road. There has to be some officer in the department who is responsible for the work. It just cannot be that once a tender has been issued, the Public Works Department washes its hands off the task.
The bad state of the roads in Goa is just an example of how nobody wants to accept responsibility for government works or for State assets. There has to be accountability in government departments, and officers, whichever the department whatever the task, must accept responsibility for works that are undertaken under their watch. If there is no accountability in government departments there will be no improvement, as only when the government gets serious and brings in accountability that the vast army of its officers may change and adopt better work attitudes. This attitude that has been for long adopted by government will require a systemic change to bring about better governance.
The short tender may get the Margao to Canacona road repaired in quick time, but will somebody in the department be overseeing the work that is being undertaken? Will there be a quality monitoring undertaken so that such washing away of the upper concrete slab surface does not recur? It shouldn’t happen that after the monsoon the road develops the same problem. It is the tax payers’ money that is paying for the construction and repairs of the road, the people need to be assured that their hard earned money is being used judiciously.
