The government will do away with the practice of allotting dredging work of village irrigation tanks and ponds to Tank Users’ Association and instead will contract the work by floating open tender, Minister for Public Works A. Namassivayam told the Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
Replying to a query by Ashok Anand, Mr. Namassivayam said the government had favoured giving the work through open tender. The Lieutenant Governor wanted to allot the work to Tank Users’ Associations.
The associations were formed in 1999 when the rehabilitation of tanks was taken up under the European Union (EU) funded programme called Tank Rehabilitation Project-Puducherry. Many of these associations were defunct, he said.
Some of the dredging work was given to the associations after the Lieutenant Governor intervened in the matter.
After that, the government received complaints that the associations were sub-contracting the work and they were ill-equipped to handle it, he said.
Later, an open tender was floated and the rate came down by 34 per cent which led the government to save ₹6. lakh from the scheme, he added.
The Minister said funds obtained from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for the dredging work had been utilised properly.
N. Dhanavelou, E. Theeppainthan (both Congress) and A. Anbalagan (AIADMK) wanted the government to tender the work.
Liquor outlets closed
To another query by Mr. Anbalagan, Mr. Namassivayam, who holds the Excise Portfolio, said the administration had closed down 163 liquor outlets in the Union Territory after the directive of the Supreme Court. Out of all the outlets closed, 40 were given permission to re-locate.
Mr. Anbalagan said the Madras High Court had issued an order against shifting of shops. The Minister said the order was restricted to Tamil Nadu and it did not apply to the Union Territory.
