Indian Express 04.05.2010
Panchkula admn to delegate civic work on contract basis
Express News Service Tags : administrator Posted: Tuesday , May 04, 2010 at 0422 hrs
Panchkula: With the dissolution of ward executive committees from this month, the district administration has decided to delegate some civic work to parties on contract basis. The new arrangement that has come into force from May 1 has brought basic civic work under the direct supervision of the municipal corporation.Earlier, ward executive committees had been directly handling projects of sanitation, setting up and maintaining streetlights and maintenance of roads and parks. These were floated in January this year. Now, the administration has invited contractors to bid for these works for which tenders have been floated. While the bidding for sanitation closes on May 10, the same for streetlights ends on May 27. These tasks will be supervised by the executive officer of the Municipal Corporation and the chief sanitary officer. Independent contractors will handle other tasks such as checking stray cattle menace, maintenance and layout of roads, upkeep of parks and the like.
Deputy Commissioner Ashima Garg said: “They have come up with a plan to streamline civic projects by virtue of which they intend to rope in resident welfare associations (RWA) for sanitation and street lighting. If they are willing, then the RWAs will be preferred over contractors.”
The administration has divided the township into three zones to handle the task of street lighting. Meanwhile, each ward will have an independent contractor for sanitation. Sources also claim that the new arrangement will also see sectors 20 and 21, which were previously under the supervision of Haryana
Urban Development Authority, coming under civic body jurisdiction.
However, former councillors are skeptical about the new move. They feel ward executive committees were more efficient. “Work gets delayed and there is too much of bureaucratic interference in a contractual system. We have not rejected it outright, but hope that the arrangement works fine for the development of the wards,” said B B Singhal, a former councillor.
