Tamil Nadu - Vellore

Pedestrian subway at four-road junction sought

VELLORE: The Vellore Corporation has requested the State government to construct a pedestrian subway at the junction of Officers’ Line and R.C. Church Road (also known as Government Muslim Higher Secondary School junction) here to ease traffic congestion .

A resolution was adopted at the ordinary meeting of the Corporation council here under the chairmanship of Mayor P. Karthikeyan here on Friday. The resolution said the Muslim school junction was an important four-road junction, where people had to frequently cross the road to go to areas such as Kasba and Ramanaickenpalayam.

Through another resolution, the Corporation placed on record the Government Order No.141 of the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department dated July 31, 2008, transferring the possession of the land (belonging to the Vellore District Consumers Cooperative Wholesale Stores Limited) in which the Mofussil Bus Stand is located on the New Katpadi Road from the Vellore Local Planning Authority (VLPA) to the Vellore Corporation, keeping in abeyance the payment of the value of the land. The government had also ordered the constitution of a committee headed by the Collector, and comprising the Regional Director of Municipal Administration, Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies and the Deputy Director of VLPA to determine the value of the land and submit a report to the government within a month.

Earlier, the council witnessed a heated debate when ward 10 councillor G.G. Ravi of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alleged corruption in the contracts awarded for the development of Mundy Street and Long Bazaar Road.

He alleged that the contracts had been awarded to two contractors, who happened to be father and son. He said that tenders should be called from more contractors .

Mr. Karthikeyan said there was nothing illegal in awarding the contract to the lowest bidder between the two bidders who happened to be father and son, as long as they had registered themselves as two separate contractors. Mr. Ravi alleged that the assistant engineer in charge of the work was demanding bribe from the contractor for payment of the bill.

He said that the bill should be settled only after subjecting the work to quality test.

Ayub Khan (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and other councillors immediately stood up and demanded that Mr. Ravi should either prove the corruption charge or withdraw his statement.

Mr. Ravi said he was openly making the allegation of corruption and even named the engineer who demanded bribe. He refused to withdraw his statement.

The Mayor said the Corporation did not make payment for bills without examining the quality of work and ensuring that the work had been executed as per the technical specifications. He agreed to subject the work to quality testing. On his intervention, the DMK councillors and Mr. Ravi resumed their seats.

Ward 25 councillor K. Srinivasa Gandhi (Congress) said the work of removing garbage had been hampered in Vellore Corporation owing to shortage of sanitary workers. About 450 sanitary workers were appointed 40 years ago based on the then population.

Though the population had increased three times since then, the number of posts had not been increased. Even the 75 vacancies caused by death or retirement of sanitary workers had not been filled, Mr. Gandhi said. The Corporation should either appoint new sanitary workers commensurate to the existing population or entrust the work of removal of garbage in select wards to the private sector, he said.

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