Nine years on, the construction of sports stadium Rajouri in Darhali bridge area lies incomplete, with the locals aghast at what they termed as “administrative inertia and a living example of failure of successive state governments”.
Available details revealed that the work on sports stadiumRajouri was started in 2010, after an announcement was made by the former chiefminister Omar Abdullah during his visit to the district. Soon after theannouncement, public works department started the construction on themulti-utility sports stadium, with the main focus on developing it as a cricketstadium.
However, in an example of “major negligence by thedepartment and government”, a proper project was not sanctioned and the worksuffered due to “lack of continuous flow of funds”, due to which the work hasremained hanging, highly-placed sources said.
Sources said, “The total amount paid for the project so farlies at Rs 152.95 lakhs, with a liability on contractors as Rs 109.48 lakhs.Delay in further release of funds has led to delay in the completion of work,which has remained stalled since the past seven years.”
The locals, while talking to Greater Kashmir, termed thestadium as a living example of the failures of both NC-Congress and BJP-PDPstate governments.
“The menace of drugs is on a rise and playing sports isthe best way to curb it. In Rajouri, we do not have even a single playground,except one in district police lines, which is not able to cater to theincreasing demand and cannot be classified as a full-fledge stadium,” SunilSharma, Mohammad Imran and Arif Majeed, among other locals said.
They added that the sports stadium continues to lieincomplete since the past several years and successive members of legislativeassembly, members of legislative council, ministers and even chief ministershave assured to get the work completed, “but nothing has been done”.
The irked locals urged upon the governor to intervene in theissue and redress their grievances.
On being contacted, assistant executive engineer(headquarters) of public works department, Sarwar Chowdhary, said, “The projectsuffered due to paucity of funds, but it has now been approved underlanguishing projects scheme and the remaining work stands allotted. The stadiumis likely to be completed by October 2019.”