Factors such as shortage of required manpower and procedural delays were hampering the progress of various development works taken up in the city, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner M. T. Krishna Babu conceded here on Thursday.
Responding to complaints from the corporators on the tardy pace of works on the second day of the GHMC council meeting, Mr. Babu said assistant engineers in good numbers were required to speed up the works and that kind of dedicated cadre was not available with the GHMC. “We have to rely on other departments for them but according to rules, they cannot be retained for more than five years,” he said.
The recruitment process was delayed for various reasons and now 37 assistant engineers have reported and more were likely to join. They would be trained for two weeks and then deployed. Congress floor leader Diddi Rambabu complained about lack of quality control and called for stern action against contractors who delayed works and at the same time encourage new contractors. The council was informed that 70 defaulting contractors were already blacklisted and notices served to some others.
The Commissioner said not many new contractors were coming forward to take up works. On the issue of quality control, he pointed out that projects were being monitored by eight agencies included reputed engineering colleges and institutes.
TDP floor leader Singireddy Srinivas Reddy listed out the cumbersome steps involved in getting a work proposal grounded and said reaching the stage of tendering itself took about 100 days. MBT corporator Amjadullah Khan said several files had gone missing and sought action against officials responsible.
Plastic ban
On the ban on plastic carry bags and gutkha, officials said regular monitoring was being done to enforce the same. Corporator A. Jeethendra and former Mayor Banda Karthika called for measures for effective enforcement while Mr. Srinivas Reddy suggested promoting alternatives to plastic bags such as cloth, paper and jute bags.
