M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, May 27: The e-tender 08/ 2022 -23 through National Competitive Bidding floated by the chief engineer of JSRRDA (Jharkhand State Rural Roads Development Authority) Ranchi inviting short tender for the construction of the bridges and its 5 years maintenance under the RCPLWEA (Road Connectivity Project of Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas) of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna phase 3 has robbed the Palamu Tiger Reserve of its peace.
Lagatar24.com has a copy of this e-tender and a list of roads where the JSRRDA has finalised the technical bidding. To name just few roads like Paraswar to Kulhi, Baheratoli to Turer, Nauka to Sanghali, Paraswar to Sanghali, Sanghali to Kulhi etc fall in the Kutku range of the PTR.
Bids were invited from 28.4.2022 to 12.5.2022. The e-procurement officer of the short tender is the chief engineer of JSRRDA.
There are roads where bridges are to be built. These roads fall in two blocks of Garhwa namely Bhandarya and Ramkanda. There is not a single road to be built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna which is not worth crore rupees.
The e-tender and finalisation of the technical bid have come as a nightmare to the PTR. Around half a dozen roads with bridges are in the core and buffer areas of the PTR’s Kutku range falling in the Bhandarya block.
Sources said a few days ago, some successful technical bidders had been to these roads in the Bhandarya block of Kutku range, making an eye assessment of the roads which alerted the trackers and forest guards of PTR.
On inquiry made by the trackers and forest guards, these people told about the repackaging of the roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna and from here started the worries of the PTR. The trackers and forest guards later phoned their seniors about the ‘hulchal’ (stir and bustle) of the contractors in the Kutku range.
Nearly half a dozen roads, for which technical bids were approved by the JSRRDA, are notified forest roads in core and buffer areas of the Kutku range of the Palamu Tiger Reserve.
Chief conservator of forest and field director of the PTR Kumar Ashutosh said the Deputy Director (north division) Kumar Ashish had written a letter on 24.05.2022 to him in this regard.
The deputy director has stated that the JSRRDA can’t undertake any work in the PTR which is non-forestry and violates numerous directives of the Forest Conservation Act and Wildlife Protection Act.
The letter of the deputy director North division of PTR also alludes to the orders of the Jharkhand High Court in respect of various writ petitions for the PTR and its wildlife management, habitat etc whereupon the High Court has on several occasions expressed concern about the PTR.
The deputy director North division of PTR has urged the chief conservator Kumar Ashutosh to prevail upon the JSRRDA to refrain from undertaking any road/bridge work on the notified forest roads that the PTR does mend and repair from time to time.
Ashutosh said the matter raised by his deputy director North division is of vital importance since it affects the Kutku range, its wildlife, habitat and the fate of the notified forest roads if bridges do come. He on May 25 itself wrote a letter to the principal chief conservator of forest and chief wildlife warden Jharkhand to step in to prevent JSRRDA from making any foray into the Kutku range of the tiger reserve.
“The JSRRDA never approached us, consulted us or told us about its road/bridge ventures in our Kutku range but silently went ahead with its national competitive bidding through e-procurement way back this last week of April itself,” said Kumar Ashutosh.
“No non-forestry work is permissible in the tiger reserve. There is a set procedure. Since where the JSRRDA has finalised the technical bids for road/bridges, are our notified forest roads and hence a no-objection certificate from the forest, environment and climate change department is mandatory,” he added.
Again there is the state board of wildlife here where such matter is to be placed first. There is the national board of wildlife and then the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
Field director Ashutosh further said, “We do not understand why our tiger reserve faces such problems from no one else but from the institutions like Rural Roads Development Authority and the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited which is set to undertake work for its third railway line between the Kumandi and Chhipadohar section.
Sources said the PTR is not the only one to ask JSRRDA to refrain from their ventures into the Kutku range. The Maoists sitting atop Burha Pahar are also watching these roads/bridges of the JSRRDA with their squinted eyes.
The roads/ bridges of the JSRRDA so much in news now fall at the foothill of the Burha Pahar and Maoists’ aversion to rural connectivity is well known since roads to Maoists mean swift movement of police which they hate.
These roads/ bridges are of the RCPLWEA, a flag of the left-wing extremism section of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
