PPP leader alleges massive corruption in road funds

CHITRAL: Senior PPP leader from Upper Chitral Abulais Ramdasi on Monday alleged misuse of funds released for the repair and reconstruction of roads to the Communication and Works (C&W) Department.

He said during the last one year a whopping amount of 100 million was shown as spent on repair and rehabilitation of roads in Upper Chitral.

But people of Upper Chitral could not see any improvement or maintenance work on any road rather main roads to different sub-valleys have become death traps due to their dilapidated conditions.

Most of the time, people of the areas repaired the roads on a self-help basis. He said the C&W department misused the public funds in collusion with some blue-eyed contractors.

He said on papers, the department showed funds spent on repair and reconstruction of roads as well as on removal of snow, boulders and mud from the roads.

In some instances, it also showed utilization of funds on reopening of blocked roads to restore traffic and such claims have no connection with reality.

He said during the year 2019-21, over Rs30.2 million were shown spent on the reconstruction of roads to Yarkhun, Mastuj, Torkhow and Mulkhow. But the people of these areas have not seen any tangible work done by the department on these roads and the condition of these roads has even worsened, he added.

He said so far this year, an amount of Rs10.75 million has been drawn for the reconstruction of the roads but the department has no work to show against this amount.

An amount of 145 million was approved for the repair of the Booni-Mastuj road this year out of which Rs7.4 million were set aside for the repair of the road from Booni to Shachar. However, repair of this portion of the road has also not been seen so far.

Though after federalizing the Booni-Shandur road an amount of Rs30 million have been approved and work launched but the pace of work and its quality is too low.

Mr Ramdasi demanded that an investigation should be conducted into the utilization of the millions of rupees by the C&W department during the last at least one year. He said the contractors’ mafia in collision with officials of the department was involved in misuse of funds.—Bashir Hussain Azad