The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Rs. 1-crore development works affected in Ambur

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Monday, Apr 14, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Rs. 1-crore development works affected in Ambur

S. Natarajan

“Non-cooperative attitude” of municipal officials cited

AMBUR: Development works worth about Rs. one crore under progress at Ambur in Vellore district have been affected owing to the “non-cooperative attitude” of municipal officials. According to sources, some of the works that had been undertaken a year ago were not completed owing to various administrative reasons.

E. Suresh Babu, Councillor (Ward 4), alleged that the Commissioner and other municipal staff did not show interest in completing the work in time. At A. Kaspa, Vaniyambadi MLA Abdul Basith had allotted Rs.5 lakh for upgrading a cremation ground. Though the allotment had been made a year ago, the municipality was yet to complete the work. As a result, Mr. Suresh Babu said, he was not in a position to get further funds from the MLA for other development works.

However, the councillors were not to blame as the problem wrested with the official machinery, he said. K. Yuvaraj, Councillor (Ward 29), said that owing to this “lackadaisical attitude” of the officials, the works that had been completed were not up to the mark. The contractors were also not keen on expediting the allotted works, fearing that the bills would not be settled in time.

Cremation ground

Pointing out to the case of A. Kaspa, K. Rajan, Councillor (Ward 28), said that the MLA had allotted funds for the cremation ground in 2006. Yet no headway had been made. All 36 councillors, including the municipal chairman, were keen on taking the development works to the residents of Ambur.

Maheswari Kumaresan, Councillor (Ward 33), said that it was one and half years since they took charge. Within this period, three Municipality Engineers, three Assistant Engineers and two Commissioners had been transferred.

“If this is the situation, how do you except the development works to be completed in time,” she wondered.

Officials posted in Ambur Municipality should not be transferred at least for a minimum of three years, Mr. Suresh Babu said.

Stating that there had been environment degradation in Ambur, L. Chakrapani, Councillor (Ward 5), said that the municipality had allotted road-relaying work in S.K. Road area.

Though the work had been allotted a year ago, the municipality had so far not started the work.

Similarly, conservancy operation in 16 of the 36 wards had been handed over to a private contractor. The municipality spends Rs.4 lakh a month for the conservancy operation.

Intriguingly, the officials had so far not supervised the work done by the private contractor, he said.

Conservancy operation

Conservancy operation had been affected in rest of the 20 wards. The situation existed at a time when there were a total of 138 sanitary workers in the municipality for the conservancy operation.

The officials did not properly utilise the services of the conservancy workers.

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