The Hindu - Karnataka 11.08.2009

Projects worth Rs. 20 cr. approved under BRGF

Staff Correspondent

Chitradurga: The Chitradurga zilla panchayat gave approval to Rs. 20.2 crore projects to the Central Government-sponsored Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) scheme. The decision was taken in the District Planning Committee (DPC) meeting chaired by zilla panchayat president L.B. Rajashekharappa here on Monday.

As per the BRGF guidelines, Rs. 16.16 crore would be utilised to develop rural areas while Rs. 4.04 crore would be spent by the City Municipal Council for improving infrastructure.

The meeting was convened to garner the suggestions of the zilla panchayat members on the proposed project report.

During the discussion, a number of members raised the issue of misappropriation of funds reported in various gram panchayats while purchasing material under the current year’s BRGF scheme.

It might be recalled that recently a member, Guruswamy, during the last general body meeting of the zilla panchayat had revealed the statistics about materials purchased at an extremely high rates than the market price by various gram panchayats in the district. Jagaluraiah, a member, felt the need to evolve a new strategy to prevent corruption. Then, Deputy Commissioner and the committee member Amlan Aditya Biswas suggested the members to adopt a resolution to purchase bulk materials only by the zilla panchayat instead of giving that power to gram panchayats.

The suggestion was unanimously accepted by the members and a resolution was passed to that effect.

Ravikumar, a member, raised objection to the proposal of purchasing materials such as cookers, mosquito nets, water heaters and UPS for SC/ST Hostels in the district. He suggested that funds should be used to construct more number of hostels for students of rural areas.

Mr. Biswas said that by mere construction of hostels would not serve the purpose of helping the SC/ST students unless they were provided with better facilities. “The Government has schemes and funds to construct hostels, thus instead of repeating the projects, the funds of BRGF could be used for improving infrastructure of the hostels”, he said.

The meeting also passed a resolution to scrap a few proposals such as holding street plays and printing publicity materials about the scheme. Instead, the meeting decided to spend the same amount in producing a documentary film about the scheme and display it in all the gram panchayats to spread awareness.

The Hindu 03.08.2009

Land acquisition, high tender rates delaying JNNURM projects

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: The delay in obtaining land for projects and the ‘exorbitant’ rate quoted by contractors are reportedly delaying the implementation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) projects in Kochi.

At least three road projects proposed for the city have been caught in the deadlock. The projects that have started include Sahodaran Ayyappan and Edapally-High Court roads, as land acquisition was not required. The civic body will have to find funds for meeting the land acquisition projects, as the Mission does not provide funds for acquiring land.

It is also the case with Rail Overbridge at Pachalam. The Roads and Bridges Corporation may soon begin the construction of the overbridges at Atlantis and Ponnurunni as they don’t require additional land, officials said.

The issues faced by the civic authorities in implementing the projects will come up for discussion at the review meeting of the projects to be held on August 4.

The first meeting will be chaired by the Local Administration Minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty and the second one by Sharmila Mary John, the newly-appointed Project Director of the Kerala Sustainable Development Project (KSUDP). The KSUDP is the nodal agency for the implementation of the Mission projects for Kerala.

According to civic officials, there were no takers for the proposed drinking water supply project of the Mission for Kochi.

The contractors were reportedly reluctant to take up the projects. Those who turned up quoted high rates for the work, which was unacceptable to the authorities. If the high rates quoted by the contractors are accepted, it will become a precedent for other projects. This would upset the financial projections of the projects, said officials.

Meanwhile, it is understood that the government may appoint a senior civil servant, who is heading a public sector unit in Kochi, as the coordinator of the Kochi projects. The demand for a dedicated team of senior officials for implementing the projects is also likely to be raised at the review meetings, officials said.