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DC must hold JNNURM review meets: Corporator

Friday, 29 October 2010 10:32 administrator
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The Times of India                    29.10.2010

DC must hold JNNURM review meets: Corporator

 MYSORE: Deputy commissioner Harsh Gupta's move to stop weekly review meetings of JNNURM has been criticized by corporators.

Corporator B L Bhyrappa, the leader of the ruling party in the Mysore City Corporation, on Thursday slammed Gupta saying it has deprived the elected representatives and the public of the updates about the Centre's ambitious scheme for urban renewal. He set November 10 as a deadline for the DC to call a review meeting.

Referring to then DC P Manivannan's move to review the JNNURM projects weekly, Bhyrappa stated: "After his transfer, his successor has not held the review meetings and we don't know what is happening on the ground."

Following the transfer of Manivannan, Gupta was appointed the DC, but there was confusion on whether he would continue to be the special officer. Subsequently, Gupta approached the government and he was made the JNNURM in-charge like his predecessor. But he has not held any open review meetings.

This comes amidst the demands that the senior official in the rank of the principal secretary should be appointed the special officer. Mysore MP A H Vishwanath has asked the CM to post senior IAS officer Amitha Prasad as the director-general of ATI.

While other JNNURM cities have utilized crores of funds to create/upgrade infrastructure, Mysore administrators are lagging behind. "Now we don't know the progress of the projects that are implemented," he stated, adding that the issue will be raised during Friday's MCC Council meeting.


 

 

Lack of transperancy in Jnnurm upsets corporator; plans stir

Friday, 29 October 2010 09:27 administrator
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The Deccan Herald  29.10.2010

Lack of transperancy in Jnnurm upsets corporator; plans stir

Mysore, oct 28, DHNS

As the fate of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) works is in dark with no regular meetings to review the progress, Corporator B L Bhyrappa has slammed the executive authorities for failing to convene even a single meeting in the last six months.

In a press conference on Thursday, he criticised Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta and said the DC who is also the special officer for Jnnurm programme, seems to be  not bothered about the central government schemes which aims for a makeover for the city, he said.

He said the Union Government has so far approved Rs 1800 crore for various projects under the JNNURM scheme. However, the elected representatives and citizens are kept in dark about how much funds are released till now and the status of sanctioned projects.
Earlier, there review meetings were used to be held regularly.  But, there is no status report of the schemes for the last six months.

Meeting  

 The meetings would help elected representatives, media and people of city get apprised of the progress of various schemes being taken up in the city. It also facilitated for suggestions and recommendations for improvement in the works.

Listing out various projects, he said the JNNURM section was spending  Rs 195 crore towards upgrading water supply network and Rs 109 crore for Kabini project.

The JUSCO has been given Rs 165 crore tender for 24 X 7 water supply. Also, the solid waste management project has got Rs 30 crore, Rs 108 crore for truck terminal work and Rs 125 crore for storm water drains. But, those works are not at all visible under those two schemes. There are reports of gross irregularities in these projects. The storm water drain project is being implemented partially and in most unscientific manner.

In addition, there are two important projects related to transport department and the conversion of the two-lane ring road into six lane which costs more than Rs 400 crore.

Tourism

The tourism department is allocated Rs 40 crore and slum clearance Board is given around Rs 155 crore.

Bhyrappa said he would stage a protest against laxity of officials in the MCC council meeting scheduled on Friday. If there is no response from the concerned authorities, he would stage a dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office on Nov 10.
 The members of NGO, public members would also join the agitation, he said.

Last Updated on Friday, 29 October 2010 09:29
 

Govt monitored 75 projects

Thursday, 28 October 2010 09:03 administrator
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The Times of India                       28.10.2010 

Govt monitored 75 projects

NEW DELHI: Here are more pointers to how Delhi government's decision to separate Games projects from those of city development is almost an afterthought.

For 28 months, an empowered committee chaired by the chief secretary, Rakesh Mehta, created for the express purpose of monitoring Games projects had reviewed 75 projects on a monthly basis. And these projects, according to top Delhi government sources, are worth Rs 16,650 crore — the figure that the Union sports ministry report says Delhi government spent on Games projects.

The committee ceased to exist after the Games as its mandate was considered fulfilled.

The projects that had been monitored by the committee but do not figure in the list of 25 projects that Mehta has suggested that CAG should limit its scrutiny to — as only they are directly related to the Games — include Geeta Colony Bridge, Bridge at Neela Hauz, Ghazipur flyover, flyover at junction of Nelson Mandela Marg and Vivekanand

Road, installing of road signages, streetlighting, beautification of flyovers, Gole Market and CP Redevelopment, upgradation of public toilets, augmentation of Delhi Transport Corporation ( DTC) fleet and several power plants, including Bawana and Dadri which have been routinely tomtommed as Games projects.

Mehta defended his letter to the CAG saying that the "institution" of the empowered committee was found so useful that "we kept adding unrelated projects" too to the kitty. Accountant general Delhi Rajveer Singh had retorted saying the government should not attempt to filter information on the ground of whether the projects are Games related or not. The government now plans to update the CAG on the various heads that it had received funds under without which, Mehta says, it will not be possible for them to understand the issue. "We will tell them how much we got as budget for the Games, how much we gave to NDMC and MCD and how much we got under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The problem is funds were sanctioned in bulk and not project wise so they were spent on both city development and CWG," Mehta explained.

The empowered committee dates back to 2008 when the need was first felt for separate monitoring of Games projects. It had 70-80 officers and the marathon monthly meetings would last 2 to 2.5 hours. "The empowered committee's role was to review Games projects but we found the exercise very useful in overall monitoring which is how these 75 projects came to be reviewed. In fact, I am now planning to recommend to the government that the committee should be revived and the exercise continued," Mehta said.
 
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