Is It A Carpet?: Internet Reacts To Viral Video Of Maharashtra Villagers Peeling Off New Road

A few locals belonging to the villages of Karjat-Hast Pokhari of Jalna district were seen in the video peeling off the road as they demonstrated how the contractor did a hasty job by just laying out the construction mixture on a cloth-like material.

A video from a village is going viral due to the poorly constructed road it revealed. According to social media, the footage is from Maharashtra, in which a few locals belonging to the villages of Karjat-Hast Pokhari of Jalna district were seen in the video peeling off the road as they demonstrated how the contractor did a hasty job by just laying out the construction mixture on a cloth-like material. In the 38-second clip, villagers slammed the shoddy work of a contractor named Rana Thakur. The men were seen holding the road and said that it was “bogus work”. The construction of the road was a part of the Prime Minister's Rural Road Scheme which was undertaken by the contractor in the area.

Interestingly, the contractor claimed that he used “German technology” for the road construction, reported The Times of India. However, the villagers quickly found out that his claims were deceptive instead this was a makeshift solution to the lack of roads in the area. After the villagers discovered the fraudulent act, they took matters into their own hands and made the video of them lifting the road revealing the substandard work. The locals also criticised the Maharashtra government for approving the shoddy work.

Usually, there are several stages of road construction that involve laying down a mixture of gravel, sand, compacted soil and asphalt concrete to ensure the durability of the structure in contrast to what was done in the Maharashtra village where the mixture was spread on a carpet-like material to complete the work in haste.

India has the second largest road network in the world of about 63.32 lakh kilometres, as per the Make in India website. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways implemented various agencies including National Highways Authority of India, the Public Works Departments of states and Union Territories, National Highway and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, Border Roads Organization and Indian Academy of Highway Engineers (IAHE). 

A user wrote, "This is not a bedsheet, but a random road" in Jalna. 

Another wrote, "is it a road?  or Is it a carpet?🤔 We Demand strong action against such road construction contractor from  @CMOMaharashtra". 

A user joked, "India's first portable road tested in Jalna, Maharashtra.
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