A physically challenged person makes his way avoiding the potholes on East Jail Road. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) today passed the buck to the urban development department.

Persistent questioning by The Telegraph to find out the basis on which the RMC selects the roads to be taken up for repair every year, over the past several days, have failed to elicit a coherent response.

But RMC spokesmen had declared last week, too, that the selection is done at the department. Today, RMC administrator Ravi Shankar Verma told The Telegraph enigmatically that the department clears those roads for which ?people? persistently do ?pairavi?.

He would not clarify whether by ?people? he meant contractors or general people. In either case, it sounded pretty preposterous to be told that RMC has no control over the decision.

The question asked by The Telegraph was fairly simple. RMC had claimed that it had taken up the repair of 21 roads during the current year at a cost of Rs 1.78 crore.

?Off hand I cannot tell you the number,? said the administrator today, ?but we must have recommended many more roads that required repair; it could be as high as 50.? But what can the poor municipality do if the department of urban development clears the claims of only 21 roads ?

Nor is the RMC forthcoming on how it decides the priority for repairing roads. The administrator vaguely speaks of the municipal corporation having its own system (?) of collecting feedback. But surely there is some method in their madness?

Certainly the rulebook would indicate that 20 or 15 per cent of the city roads should be taken up for routine maintenance and repair every year?

Surely the RMC would have some kind of an expert committee to shortlist the roads, classify them in accordance with urgency, traffic movement etc. and provide an estimate of funds required?

But unfortunately, there is no answer. Yet. To facilitate matters, we are indicating below the questions that we would like the RMC to answer. If they don?t furnish a reply, The Telegraph will seek answers from the urban development department.

(1) How many roads is the RMC entrusted to maintain ? What is the road-length and which are the more prominent roads?

(2) What has been the road-repair budget of the RMC over the past three years?

(3) Is the amount slated for repairs adequate?

(4) How many contractors have the RMC awarded work for these repairs. Who are they?

(5) What is the highest amount the RMC has paid on the repair of which road? And what is the lowest?

(6) Is there a ?system? or ?expert committee? to finalise the list of roads to be taken up each year by the RMC?

(7) What is the RMC?s budget and how much of its is earmarked for road repair?

(8) Which section in RMC is responsible for laying roads and repairing roads ? How many engineers and other staff does it boast of?

(9) How much money is spent on their salary?

(10) Who in the urban development department decides which roads RMC should take up for repairs and at what cost ?

There is ?pick-and-choose?, the administrator admits. But he insists that the this takes place only at the department and not at the RMC. But he maintains a silence when asked if the contractors decide the priority for repair work.