PMO seeks report on civic problems in Varanasi
VARANASI: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has taken a serious note of civic problems in Varanasi, and sought a detailed report on hurdles in quick implementation of infrastructure development projects in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency.
The problems highlighted by the PMO include bumpy roads, power cuts, wastage of water, and leakage in pipelines.
Tanmay Mehta, the PM’s executive personal assistant at the PMO, sent an e-mail to the district administration on July 12, seeking a report on 50 points from 24 government departments. It asked the district administration to submit the report within 24 hours.
“An amount of Rs 6.5 crore goes down the drain. The amount was allotted to the PM constituency for making it pothole free; two days rain shows the true picture of inefficiency,” the PMO official wrote, asking why the roads couldn’t be pothole-free, despite availability of funds and repeated instructions.
The UP government had set June 15 as the deadline to make roads pothole-free across the state.
After the mail, the district administration issued a letter, which HT accessed, to all 24 departments, asking them to provide details of the status of the projects related to them.
District magistrate Yogeshwar Ram Mishra said, “Officials were instructed to provide details of the status of developmental projects related to their respective departments. On the basis of details, a detailed progress report of various developmental projects was prepared and sent to the PMO.”
The email makes it clear that the PM is keeping a close watch on the projects in his parliamentary constituency.
The PMO has sought an explanation from the Varanasi Municipal Corporation (VMC) on why it failed to take care of stray animals. It also took note of leakages resulting in wastage of water and slow repair of pipelines.
It asked what arrangements had been made to do away with waterlogging in government primary schools. It also sought a progress report on tourism schemes.
The PMO also took note of the lack of regular cleaning of public toilets. The Varanasi municipal commissioner recently issued instructions to pay regular attention to the cleaning of public toilets.
The PMO wanted to know the status of the control room set up at Vikas Bhavan to implement Kisan Rin Mochan Yojana under which loan of 40,831 farmers is to be waived.
It further asked why there were power cuts, which led to water crisis in many areas, including Godowlia. The PMO noted that heavy rain triggered waterlogging in the city and asked why drainage arrangements failed. The PMO also took cognizance of a protest against the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in PM Modi’s constituency: As the cloth market remained closed on Tuesday, business worth Rs 200 crore was affected. What efforts were made to clear the doubts of the traders on the issue? The PMO asked.
Taking cognizance of 12 attacks on police reported in last three months in 10 districts and, the PMO asked why police failed to instill fear among criminals despite the chief minister’s order.
It also asked what was done to check sand mining since ghats were in danger because of it.