The Hindu              12.07.2013

Approval for annual plan of 18 local bodies

The District Planning Committee has given approval to the annual plan of 18 local bodies in the district.

The plans of 16 grama panchayats, Neeleshwaram municipality, and the Karadukka block panchayat were approved at a meeting chaired by district panchayat president P.P. Shyamala Devi at the Collectorate here on Thursday.

The meeting approved the annual plan of Enmakaje panchayat (136 projects), West Eleri (147), Kuttikole (145), Bedadukka (153), Kodom-Belur (266), Badiadukka (285), Muliyar (203), Manjeshwaram (208), Madhur (230), Kumbadaje (129), Kumbla (216), Karadukka (173), Chengala (333), Chemnad (261), and Delampady (165).

A release said 265 projects of the Neeleshwaram municipality and 68 projects of the Karadukka block panchayat got approval.

MLAs N.A. Nellikkunnu and K. Kunhiraman, district planning officer K. Jaya, and senior officials attended the meeting.

The Hindu              12.07.2013

Corpn. cancels contract over UGD works delay

Finally, the city residents who faced a lot of hardship due to poor execution of the underground drainage work may heave a sign of relief as the Corporation has terminated the agreement with the contractor for failing to complete the works on time and fulfil the agreement terms.

The joint venture company, PSVCPL-BBIPL, Hyderabad was awarded the contract for laying collection pipelines, constructing manholes and providing house connections for a total distance of 86.17 km under Package I and 184.82 km under Package II. The contract was awarded in March 18, 2010 and was asked to be completed in 30 months and 36 months respectively. The date of completion of work expired and no works were carried out from December 2012.

Though the corporation issued a final warning on May 15, 2013, only 30 per cent of the total works were completed.

Hence, with complaints pouring in from people across the city, the civic body decided to terminate the contract and placed it before the emergency council meeting held here on Thursday.

The resolution also said that the loss to the corporation due to cancellation of the contract could be adjusted by retaining the security deposit of Rs. 2.64 crore provided by the company and also the retention money of Rs. 1.51 crore that the corporation had to pay the contractor. A resolution was passed to terminate the contract and look for a new contractor to complete the rest of the work.

Engineers said that a revised estimate for completing the pending works would be prepared, placed before the council for getting approval, would be sent to the government for getting administrative sanction and a government order would be issued. After that the estimate would be sent to the technical committee for sanctioning and tender process would be initiated. “It would take a minimum of six months to resume the work,” engineers added.