The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Councillors slam officials over quality of roads

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Councillors slam officials over quality of roads

Staff Reporter

`No action taken against contractors' Despite complaints, `no action being taken against contractors'

TAMBARAM: Councillors of Pallavaram Municipality on Tuesday accused officials and engineers of the local body of neglecting road laying works.

At a meeting of the council on Tuesday, elected representatives said that despite written complaints to the officials about the shoddy manner in which some of the roads were being laid, no action was taken.

Referring to the road works in his ward, S. Narasimhan, CPI (M) councillor, said that instead of 20 mm stones used in bitumen topped roads, stones twice that size were used. In the absence of engineers at the work spot, contractors compromised on quality and wasted public money.

`No proper curing'

Without proper curing, the newly laid roads were of poor quality.

At least when complaints about the poor workmanship were received, officials could act immediately. Mr. Narasimhan wanted to know why the municipality was laying roads when work on the underground drainage network had already started.

"Very soon, the roads are going to be dug up for the sewers and laying roads now will only be a waste of money," Mr. Narasimhan said as a section of the councillors endorsed his statement.

Officials said the municipality had sanctioned the ongoing road laying works long ago and no fresh tenders had been invited after the underground drainage work had started.

Confiscation notices

Mr. Narasimhan termed as unfair the property confiscation notices sent to residents who had time till April to pay water charges and property taxes. There were several commercial establishments that owed large sums to the municipality but these were spared.

However, officials said the municipality was earlier owed Rs. 7 crores from residents and commercial establishments and the arrears had been brought down to a little over Rs. 3 crores following a mobilisation drive. They stated that sending confiscation notices to people with dues was well within the powers of the local body under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1923. Stating that they recently had collected Rs. 25 lakhs as dues from an educational institution run by a politician in Chromepet, officials claimed that they spared no one when it came to collecting dues.

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