Irate villagers of Karjat-Hastpokhari in Maharashtra’s Jalna district recently “lifted up” a newly-laid road under the Prime Minister Rural Road Scheme, ostensibly to highlight the poor quality of construction of the village thoroughfare.
An undated video of the villagers accusing local contractor Rana Thakur of carrying out the ‘bogus’ work, has gone viral on social media networks.
Despite repeated attempts, the District Collector and Zilla Parishad authorities were not available for their comments in the matter.
In the half-minute clip, villagers are seen hoisting up the new road with their fingers, with fresh asphalt and folding it up to reveal a cloth “carpet’ on the muddy ground, in Jalna a” which is the home district of Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Minister Raosaheb Danve.
The rural folk claimed that the thin cloth carpet forms the foundation of the road on which asphalt was poured and levelled to make it appear like a new road, allegedly using some German technology, but it had a shoddy, shaky base, as shown in the video.
They demanded action against the contractor, the road engineers and the concerned department for trying to fool the villagers with the substandard work quality that may not last too long.
Social media users reacted strongly to the video and the villagers’ predicament with comments slamming the concerned authorities for reneging on their promise to provide good rural connectivity.
20230601-174804
