The Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, has resolved to personally supervise the state road conditions and the development activities going on. To achieve higher accountability and efficiency in the governing set-up, the Chief Minister took a very radical step to announce that he would drive around the various districts to make a reality check of the infrastructure on the ground. He has also given a 50-day timeline to the authorities and has asked them to finish outstanding tasks and demonstrate their visible results before he visits.
The move comes when road connectivity is a major issue facing Uttarakhand, especially following the latest monsoon season that left some stretches of roads destroyed following heavy rains and landslides. The hilly areas have roads that are usually in terrible shape, causing discomfort to people in the area and travellers. The Chief Minister is trying to avoid the normal reports and see the state of roads and development works with his own eyes by deciding to check the situation himself. This project should provide him with a clear picture of both the improvement and the deficiency at the ground level.
District officials have now been put on the alert because the Chief Minister has indicated clearly that he is not going to be satisfied with paperwork or presentations alone. Rather, it will be their performance on his on-site inspections that will test them. The 50-day schedule can be viewed as a rigid plan to accomplish the major projects, restore the broken roads, and make the developmental actions visible and effective. The departments have also been asked to plan and to eliminate bureaucratic obstacles that tend to slow progress.
This action by the Chief Minister has created an urgency in the administrative machine. There is an expectation that local bodies and the public works departments will accelerate the process by filling the potholes, repairing washed-out sections and providing a safe passage on vital routes. The fact that he will be travelling by road will also give him a chance to meet the people on the ground directly, where he will be able to get feedback concerning the quality of work being done.
This project helps the state government to enhance the activities of transparency, speedy development and better road connectivity that is crucial in the Uttarakhand state economy, tourism and even in the life of the Uttarakhand people. Officials are pressured to achieve real results within the set time limit as the Chief Minister himself takes the lead. When the reality check is finally completed, it will almost certainly cause both successes and failures to surface, which would establish the benchmark of tougher oversight of infrastructure projects going forward.
