The Times of India 31.10.2010
14 development projects fail to get F&CC nod
LUDHIANA: The municipal corporation’s lackadaisical attitude kept the decision related to implementation of 14 development projects worth crores hanging fire. The finance and contract committee (F&CC) did not give approval to these items during its meeting held on Saturday evening as the officials had not mentioned the nature of work in their presentations, most of which related to the bridges and road department (B&R).
The officers had not clearly stated if they were talking about the construction of RCC roads or laying bitumen, resulting the confusion among the members.
Citing the pressure of having to ‘clear several resolutions in a few hours’, the F&CC members said as the authorities had not made the nature of subjects clear in their presentations, they would have to go through the details of the resolution, consuming much time. Hence, they directed the officials to again prepare the papers in details, which they would take up in their next meet.
It is due to the careless attitude of officers concerned that they have to keep the resolutions pending in almost every meeting, said senior deputy mayor Parveen Bansal. Though they conduct meetings at regular intervals and pending items could be discussed in the next meeting, such futile activities waste precious time of councillors.
Meanwhile, the pending resolutions also led to arguments as those in the opposition raised allegations against the ruling party. The opposition members claimed that the F&CC had kept these resolutions pending as they did not want to clear the works of councillors of the opposition party. The F&CC members had earlier too directed the officials to clearly mention the nature of work in the resolution heading before presenting the agenda in the meetings. But the officials continued with their careless attitude.
Earlier, it was the agenda branch’s duty to fix the resolutions but they refused, citing that it was difficult for them to understand technical details of the projects submitted by the departments concerned.