The Hindu : Officials blamed for tender delay

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 02, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Officials blamed for tender delay

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI May 1. Contrary to opposition and ruling party Councillors locking horns, elected representatives and officials of the Alandur Municipality battled hard over delay in handing over tenders to contractors for execution of urgent works.

Even before issues on the agenda were taken up at the meeting on Wednesday, the Councillors complained to the Chairman that the tender processes were getting unduly delayed. The Chairman sought an explanation from officials who replied that the delay in the completion of the tender process was solely due to administrative reasons. The Councillors, however, dismissed the charge and alleged that the officials demanded a share of the project cost from the contractors. One of the Councillors alleged that even on Tuesday evening, officials received tenders from contractors at 6 p.m., well beyond the scheduled closing time of 4 p.m.

The Commissioner, K. Jayaraman, took exception to this allegation and replied that such charges made by the Councillor were baseless. He proceeded to walk out of the Council Hall with the rest of the officials following him. After the Chairman, R.S. Bharathi, and the Vice-Chairman pacified them, the returned to the seats and made it very clear that they would not tolerate such remarks. If it continued, they would rather stay away from the meetings and instead simply sign the `minutes book'.

The Chairman pointed out that in certain places like Nanganallur, works seemed to be concentrated in one ward, while the adjacent wards were being neglected. Mr. Jayaraman replied that only those works that were placed on the agenda were taken up for execution.

The Councillors said work pertaining to sinking of bore wells in all the 42 wards was left incomplete in several wards. The Municipal Engineer, Venkat Raju, pointed an accusing finger at certain Councillors and said they forced the staff to sink more than the one bore well sanctioned in their respective wards. The staff did not have an option as the elected representatives intimidated them. Mr. Bharathi replied that neither the officials nor lower level staff should be cowed down by the threats or intimidations of the ward members. Councillors, cutting across party affiliations, opined that they should be vested with the powers of selecting the contractors for the works to be executed in their wards.

The issue arose when the Councillors expressed fears over short supply of water by the Metrowater. The Chairman recalled that the local body had agreed to the hike in water charges to Metrowater only on condition that the agency would not decrease the water supply to the municipality under any circumstance.

White paper sought

The recent episode of water contamination had its echo in the meeting of Pallavaram Municipality on Wednesday, with Councillors Kannan of Congress and Narasimhan of CPI (M) demanding a White Paper into the incident. While stating that it was not necessary to present a White Paper, the Chairman, Dhan Singh, said they would take up the matter with the government agencies concerned.

The Councillors also said though the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board had pulled up a private company, the local body should prefer a police complaint so that the culprits were brought to book immediately.

Councillors complained about the lethargic attitude of the TWAD Board. Citing the TNPCB report, they said the TWAD officials had informed those in TNPCB about the water contamination due to disposal of chemical waste on the April 24. But why had the Board kept the Municipality authorities in the dark about the same, they demanded. It was not until the next morning that the Board officials confirmed the contamination, only after which water supply could be stopped and the overhead tanks drained. It was sheer providence that a major catastrophe was avoided as the water did not contain any poisonous substance, the Councillors said and called TNPCB attitude irresponsible as well as demeaning to the concept of local self-government.

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