The Bengal government is expected to allot a good amount to repair rural roads in its budget for 2023-24, likely to be presented this week, after complaints that rural roads once built under the PMGSY are in bad shape because of lack of maintenance.

The decision, sources said, was taken after the ruling party leaders visited districts under the “Didir Doot” programme and received several complaints about bad roads in rural areas. As issues related to roads hold immense political importance, particularly ahead of the panchayat polls, the state government might allot a handsome amount for their repair.

“The problem is that the Centre does not provide any funds to carry out repair work on the roads that were built under the PMGSY scheme. As complaints are coming up over the poor state of the roads, the state has to come forward to ensure the roads are repaired. For this a special allotment could be done in this year’s budget,” said a senior state government official.

According to sources, the Centre has released a sum of Rs 568 crore to build new roads under the PMGSY scheme in the 2022-23 financial year.

“But this particular fund cannot be used for repairing the old and dilapidated roads. This fund is meant solely for the construction of new roads. This is why the state government has to allocate funds for repairing the roads,” said a source.

A few years back, the state government had given PWD the responsibility to maintain all roads across the state. But the department could do little to undertake repair work on rural roads because of the paucity of funds.

“Now, it seems that the state government is set to allot a special fund to repair the damaged rural roads by cutting allotment from some other departments. The repair of rural roads is getting priority and this is why some other departments might get curtailed allotments,” said a senior official.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee also said during a programme in Panchla in Howrah that her government was trying to arrange funds for the repair of rural roads.

“Primarily, it appears that a sum of Rs 2,000 crore will be allotted for this purpose. But the final figure could depend on the fact how much the state can afford to spend on this particular head in a tight financial condition,” said a source.

A section of the officials said that the rural bodies across the state have more than Rs 2,000 crore in their possession received from the 15th Finance Commission. Though the chief minister had asked the rural bodies to spend 50 per cent of the amount to repair rural roads, nothing has been done so far, said sources.

“However, rural bodies in many places can’t spend the money because of severe infighting among local leaders. As the top brass of the ruling party did not want to intervene just ahead of the rural polls, the funds are still lying unspent and the state is being forced to allot fresh funds to repair damaged roads,” said a bureaucrat.