The council of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat decided to blacklist contractors who did not complete water supply projects by the end of 2014-15.
In the ZP meeting on Wednesday, the members took the engineers to task for failing to ensure that water supply projects were completed within the stipulated period. Executive Engineer of the panchayat H. V. Nanjeshaiah told the meeting that 35 water supply projects — some of which were three years old — were incomplete due to various reasons.
Eshwar Kateel, a member, said that completion of the multi-village water supply project at Kinnigoli had been delayed particularly because of the non-performance of the Andhra Pradesh-based contractor. Though the former Executive Engineer of the panchayat S.L. Sathyanarayana promised the council that the project would be commissioned by the end of December, it had not happened.
Mr. Nanjeshaiah said that all efforts would be made to commission the project within two weeks. But a sceptical Mr. Kateel said that it would be impossible as some pipelines were yet to be laid.
Another member pointed out that the panchayat should take over the 2 mgd (million gallons a day) capacity water supply line (old water supply line) of Mangalore City Corporation from Thumbe to Padil as people under many gram panchayats drew water from it and the corporation was not using it. Replying to it, Thusali Maddineni, Chief Executive Officer of the panchayat, said it involved bearing the maintenance cost of Rs. 80 lakh per annum. In addition, as untreated water was being pumped into the pipeline, the panchayat would have to set up a treatment plant. A proposal for funds to this effect would be sent to the Principal Secretary of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj.
Dumping in Nandini
When the issue of releasing waste water and dumping garbage to the Nandini river at Kateel came up, a representative of the Kateel Durgaparameshwari Temple administration told the meeting that now waste water was not being let into the river. The temple had also stopped dumping the waste to the river.
Responding to it, president of the panchayat K. Koragappa Naik instructed the executive officer of Mangalore Taluk Panchayat and an official from the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan to visit the temple and verify the claims. Mr. Eshwar, who has been raising the issue at ZP meetings, confirmed the temple official’s statement and said that waste water was being collected in drums. However, he said that much had to be done to maintain cleanliness of the town outside the temple premises.
Mr. Naik said he and the Deputy Secretary of the panchyat had visited the town and later at a meeting instructed the temple to maintain cleanliness.
Hajabba, doctor felicitated
Lack of quorum forced president of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat K. Korgappa Naik to delay starting the council meeting of the panchayat by 45 minutes on Wednesday. It required the presence of 26 members to start the meeting scheduled at 11 a.m.
Harekala Hajabba, an orange seller who has built a school at Harekala, was felicitated at the meeting. Sandeep, a doctor-cum-administrative officer of Puttur Taluk Hospital was also felicitated for removing a tumour weighing 7 kg from the abdomen of a woman recently.
