'CM ignorant of Corpn. rules'

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, JULY 11. The Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalithaa's outburst over the construction of mini-flyovers only exposed her ignorance of the rules governing the Chennai Corporation and other civic bodies in the State, the Mayor, Mr. M. K. Stalin, said today.

``The charge that she made in the press today is similar to the so-called scams that she conjured up in the ``punnakku'' issue and the rotten rice cases,'' he said.

``The world now knows that both these are cooked up cases. The flyover case is similar,'' he added.

There was a huge difference between powers for administrative sanction and contract powers of a civic body, its elected functionaries and executive authority.

While a ceiling was fixed for administrative sanction, it was not so in the case of contract powers, officials explained.

It was wrong to say these powers were given only to the Chennai Corporation. Orders issued by the Government would tell a different story: even the Coimbatore and Madurai Corporations had the same powers and, in fact, they implemented the enhanced powers even before the Chennai Corporation did so, the officials added.

The lack of understanding comes in here. While Rs. 50 lakhs was the highest `administrative sanction' the Mayor could accord, there was no ceiling on how much contract powers the local bodies had. And it was not as if only the local bodies were given these powers. Public sector units too derived benefit out of a similar GO.

Similarly, even small municipalities such as Alandur in Chennai could take up underground sewage works worth more than Rs. 30 crores only because the Government decided that the local bodies themselves call for open tenders.

The only other criterion was that the tender had to pass through the various committees of the local body and the council.

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Section  : Southern States
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