The State Government has initiated the process for the third-phase of Mission Kakatiya, even as the second-phase is in progress, by asking the engineers to sanction works by December-end and take up works from January itself.
The decision to advance the works’ schedule was taken keeping in mind the experience of delays in grounding the works in the first two phases. Some works of the first-phase are still in progress in spite of repeated reminders and warnings issued to the officials concerned.
Minister for Irrigation T. Harish Rao on Monday conducted a review meeting on the progress of the second-phase Mission Kakatiya works in Medak, Nalgonda, Warangal and Khammam districts with district Collectors and other officials concerned. He suggested the officials to further improve transparency in the tenders for third-phase works, besides laying focus on the reforms to improve the quality of works. He wanted the officials to further simplify the tenders’ process by reducing the tender document from the present 128 pages to about 10 to 15 pages.
Asking the officials to explore the possibilities of handling the programme works online from the stage of preparing estimates to sanction of works, the Minister felt that it would reduce wastage of time and work burden on the engineers by minimising the laborious process of going through so many pages of the tender documents.
One of the important proposal that came up for discussion was to give works with less than Rs.5 lakh estimated cost to the gram panchayats concerned in case there was no response from the contractors for the tenders even after three calls. However, the Minister stated that a final decision on the proposal would be taken by the Cabinet.
The issue of handing over the management of tanks restored in the first-phase was also discussed but no decision was taken. The Minister stated that NABARD had agreed to lend Rs.800 crore for Mission Kakatiya this year against Rs.1,800 crore sought by the State Government.
