Blueprint unveiled to revitalise civic bodies in next six months

Monday, 11/05/2015

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Chandigarh : Punjab Local Government Minister Anil Joshi has unveiled a blueprint for revitalisation of all civic bodies in the state and has asked the department to come out with a masterplan to implement it within next six months.

In a detailed communiqué to Secretary, Local Government, Ashok Gupta, here on Sunday, the Local Government Minister said that all works need to be ensured according to plan only. “Storm sewer construction should always start from downstream upwards and no piecemeal construction of sewer and patch work should be permitted. Proper use of super sucker machines, wherever available should be ensured for desalting of large and main sewers,” he pointed out.

He said that e-tendering has already been made mandatory for all works above Rs 2 lakh, which needs to be ensured at all levels. Stringent conditions need to be included in the contracts so as to avoid change of specifications and change of scope of allotted work. This becomes more important where the contractors quote very less minus 20 per cent or below. Such situations could be very easily overcome if the enlistment policy circulated by the department was followed in letter and spirit. Third party inspection and social audit as well as material testing of all civil works according to government policy was required to be implemented seriously, he desired.

He further said that at the same time, display boards for ongoing works, contractors and proper CPM chart or work programme at site were also to be ensured by all the civic bodies. Testing of material and concrete should be ensured regularly for which sufficient cubes should be casted each time (minimum 10) so that at least 3 samples were available for tests required, if any, in future too.

Escalation in costs due to inordinate delays should be avoided and the contractor should be held responsible for the same.

The Minister instructed that energy efficient streetlighting should be used and street switches of town should be switched on at dusk and switched off at 5 am. Economical running of STPs should be ensured so that minimum electrical machinery runs avoiding excessive electrical

billing.

He said that preventive maintenance of instruments is required to be ensured and adequate provisions for AMC need to be considered for coming 10 years. Similarly, the general public was required to be provided knowledge for rainwater harvesting. Ramps of house owner extending beyond their gates onto the roads should be discouraged for ensuring proper alignment and symmetry of city buildings.

Joshi stated that it has been observed in various field visits that footpaths on the berms have been made far away under the trees and electricity poles. At majority of points, proper drainage was not there to save roads and the workmanship of filling of grooves of expansion joints was generally not up to the mark which may not withstand the expansion or contraction of concrete panels.

Grooves left in between the panels were not in straight line giving shabby look exhibiting poor quality. Cracks have developed in large areas of concrete paving roads as no expansion joints have been provided in roads. Concrete work should be of proper quality, he asserted.

The Minister said that all shallow tube-wells less than 400 feet deep should be abandoned and in future, no shallow tube-well shall be installed in the civic bodies according to the decision of National Green Tribunal. Wherever required, the civic bodies may invite tenders for water quality mapping and analysis based on model bid document. Updated and proper record of all the roads with their date of original construction and future repairs is required to be maintained.

He said that establishment matters, including improvement in provident funds management systems, reducing the cost of establishment and timely issuance of salary slips needs to be given due importance. “Digitisation of birth and death records should be there for providing efficient and transparent services to the citizens. Redressal of common citizens’ grievances should be the top priority,” Joshi added.