The standard of public works in India is fast deteriorating as evidenced by the regular and alarming collapse of bridges, buildings, dams and roads, etc. Nearly eight months ago, a bridge in Gujarat’s Morbi district collapsed, killing over 150 people. Close on the heels of the said incident, the authorities were forced to dismantle a three-year-old road over bridge in Kochi and INR 50 crore went down the drain from the government exchequer with the demolition of the bridge. Another example was when parts of an expressway in Bundelkhand caved in within a week after it was inaugurated by the Prime Minister. Recently, an under construction bridge on Ganga river collapsed in Bihar, giving rise to many questions regarding the quality of construction and the role of officials involved in supervising the work. It should be noted that this was not the first time that the under construction bridge had collapsed, it had met the same fate the previous year too. All these incidents show that no one is bothered about the standard of work being undertaken. And taking advantage of the lackluster attitude of officials, unscrupulous contractors are pocketing huge sums, at the expense of the tax payer’s money.
Such a situation shows lack of accountability in the public works system in the country, which is evident from the fact that not many offenders have been punished despite the rise in the number of such incidents. The authorities are so lenient towards offenders, that they even accept unsatisfactory explanations given by offenders without raising any questions. In regard to the Bihar bridge collapse last year, it was stated that a couple of pillars of the under construction bridge collapsed due to rain and wind without explaining how the concrete pillars of a bridge can simply be blown away by wind and rain. Now, it has been reported that an expert team from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee has found the entire design faulty and the bridge has to be dismantled to pave way for the construction of a new bridge. Accordingly, the state government has abandoned the entire project and is planning to start afresh after wasting a huge amount of public funds.
Similar incidents have happened in West Bengal and a number of other states, where bridges or road projects have had to be abandoned midway because of faulty design or sub-standard quality of works. It’s a pity that even with the number of such incidents on the rise, no exemplary punishment has been awarded to those who have betrayed the trust of the people and looted public funds. If this trend continues for any longer, roads, bridges and buildings built by public funds will no longer be considered safe. To prevent such a situation, accountability should be set by promptly sentencing offenders to ensure the fear of law and to stop those indulging in illegal means in search of easy profit. If the guilty are allowed to go free, public money will continue to be drained and the standard of public works will deteriorate even further.
