The Hindu 14.08.2013
Cutting charges to be used to restore roads
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to utilise the road cutting charges collected from residents towards restoration of the road.
In a circular issued on Tuesday, BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan said the city’s roads were routinely dug up to provide drinking water, drainage and power connections to individual houses. However, the roads were not restored to their original state after the work by the other civic agencies. This had led to deterioration of the roads and inconvenienced road users.
Mr. Lakshminarayan has directed the officials to ensure that they collect the road cutting charges and only then issue permission for road cutting. The charges should be deposited in the account of the jurisdictional executive engineer, who can use the funds (not more than Rs. 5 lakh at a time) to restore the road.
The Assistant Finance Controller concerned should issue job codes to this work only if it has the administrative and technical approval.
The road restoration may be executed through Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd.
To ensure that the funds are not misused, the officials have been directed to send a detailed monthly report on the total charges collected and spent to the Commissioner through the chief engineer and Additional Commissioner (Finance). If the funds do not tally, the executive engineer would be held responsible, the circular has stated.
The circular was issued following the inspection by Upa Lokayukta S.B. Majage last month. He had lambasted the officials for failing to check the indiscriminate road cutting by various agencies.
Issue permission for road cutting only after collecting charges: BBMP
