People demand action for wasting Govt money in Kupwara, Officials say construction was made in haste, divider was main source of road mishaps
Tasaduq Hussain
Kupwara, July 08 (KNO): Barely nine months after center curve (divider) was constructed at the main Regipora Chowk in north Kashmir’s Kupwara was dismantled by the authorities evoking strong resentment from the locals of the area who termed it the move as wasting of Government money.
The center curve was constructed during the month of September in 2019 from main chowk to Regipora and outside old bus stand (By-pass) at a cost of Rs 10 lakhs, the amount been withdrawn by the contractor.
Residents told news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), what was the fun of constructing the divider when it was supposed to be dismantled. “The construction was done only 9 months back but for no reason it was dismantled on intervening night of Tuesday-Wednesday for which lakhs of rupees were spent.
Shahid Ahmad, a local resident said that why the divider was constructed despite spending huge amount on it in the first place when it was to be dismantled again. “We fail to understand the government policies. First they construct and claim that it will help ease out traffic and then they dismantle on the pretext that it was not suitable,” he said.
The move from authorities to dismantle the center curve has also invited online criticism on social media platforms with people seeking accountability of those who earlier decided to construct it.
An official Roads and Buildings (R&B) department said that an amount of Rs 20 lakh was advertised earlier but the allotted cost of construction work was 15 lakhs and then the work was awarded to local contractor at an amount of Rs 10 lakhs stands withdrawn from the department by concerned contractor immediately after the completion of work.
Meanwhile, eyewitness said that this afternoon after dismantling the divider, the particular patch was macadamized immediately. Executive officer municipal committee Kupwara, Ghulam Rasool said that he has no information about the dismantling of the divider.
Chairman Municipal Council Kupwara, Riyaz Ahmad told KNO that the construction was done is haste post the abrogation of article 370 in August last year when almost all the public representatives were not present but after the construction when things moved to normal a number of representations were made against it citing the divider as a source of major inconvenience and a major source of road mishaps. “The decision to dismantle it was taken only after the public demand,” he said—(KNO)
