Several infrastructure projects are being implemented in haste so that all works are complete before the fiscal year-end. Locals are disappointed with the quality of work. 

MAHOTTARI, June  29: Formation of local units across the country was expected to end the trend of wasting government resources by implementing development projects at the eleventh hour. However, local units continue to implement infrastructure projects at the eleventh hour by compromising on quality.

Contractors completed concrete paving of a road project at Suga in Jaleshwar Municipality Ward-4 in just two days. Concrete paving work was completed within two days of road leveling work, according to locals.

Likewise, another contractor put only five-centimeter overlay on a road in Mahottari Rural Municipality Ward-3. As per the contract, the construction company had to do plain cement concrete (PCC). But the work was completed by putting a thin concrete overlay on the road. 

These two incidents are just the examples of eleventh hour spending in Mahottari district. Several infrastructure projects are being implemented in haste so that all works are complete before the fiscal year-end. Locals are disappointed with the quality of construction work. They say the trend of implementing development projects has not changed even though people’s representatives have been elected in local units.

Riyaj Ansari, a local from Jaleshwar-4, said that the local representatives have forgotten their promise made to locals at the time of election. “Though people’s representatives have been elected in local units, we have not seen any change in their working modality,” Ansari added. Of the 15 units in Mahottari, only one or two units have brought about some change in project implementation modality.

Meanwhile, locals of Samsi Rural Municipality have issued a joint statement, protesting the trend of implementing development projects in haste with the objective of ending budget before fiscal year-end. 

Civil society of Samsi has even registered a complaint at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). In the complaint, civil society has argued that construction and quality of roads and bus station, among others, are not as per the red book. 

Similar voices have also been raised by locals of Aurahi, Balawa, Jaleshwar, Sitapur Bhangaha, Sonama and Ramgolpur Pipara.

 
• eleventhhour
 
• spending
 
• continues
 
• unabated