The MLAs from the ruling party and the Opposition on Wednesday raised several complaints about poor roads on the floor of the Bengal Assembly, prompting Speaker Biman Banerjee to propose a dropbox for the lawmakers to lodge their grievances.
It all began with a question from BJP MLA Manoj Kumar Oraon about the repair of a potholed road in his Kumargram constituency. For the next 15 minutes, both Trinamool Congress and BJP MLAs aired grievances about the deteriorating condition of roads in their respective Assembly segments.
The Speaker eventually intervened with an instruction to PWD minister Pulak Roy to place a dropbox in the Assembly for collecting complaints related to road conditions.
“Respected minister, I want to tell you something. Last year, you spoke about keeping a dropbox (to receive road-related complaints). Here, many members are raising their hands, and the fact is that many roads are being damaged during this monsoon season. If you (MLAs) submit your complaints about bad roads in the dropbox, then his officials (PWD department) will collect them and respond within two days,” Speaker Banerjee said.
Following the Speaker’s instructions, minister Roy said a dropbox would be installed on the Assembly premises from Thursday and that the department would act on complaints submitted by MLAs. However, a source noted that a dropbox had also been placed last year, but very few complaints were submitted.
BJP MLAs like Oraon, Anup Kumar Saha (Dubrajpur) and Nirmal Kumar Dhara (Indus) and, Trinamool Congress MLAs Humayun Kabir (Raninagar) and Saokat Molla (Canning Purba) spoke about bad roads in their respective constituencies.
Several MLAs from both urban and rural areas said the damaged roads were a major concern ahead of next year’s Assembly elections, as voters had been demanding immediate action.
Since coming to power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee has prioritised the construction of good roads in both urban and rural areas, treating it as a key development agenda. The chief minister has consistently focused on keeping Bengal’s roads smooth, recognising that poor road conditions during the Left Front’s tenure — especially in rural districts— were a major source of public dissatisfaction.
She launched a new scheme, Pathasree, aimed at constructing 11,500 km of rural roads with a budget of ₹3,000 crore ahead of the 2024 general election. This came after rural road construction had stalled because of the Narendra Modi government’s pause on the release of funds under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).
A source has said that most of the damaged roads are in urban areas and they include state and national highways, which have remained neglected since 2020, when the state implemented austerity measures because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A PWD source added that the state government had recently sanctioned ₹1,900 crore for the repair and construction of state highways and urban roads, but work was yet to begin.