Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj said on Thursday that 1,675 development projects were lying incomplete in Dakshina Kannada since 2003-04. They were taken up under the local area development schemes of MPs and MLAs, and with the calamity relief fund.
At a meeting to review the progress of various projects at his office here, he said the concerned engineers from the zilla panchayat, Public Works Department and Mangalore City Corporation were responsible for the delay in completing them.
Quality of work in many projects was not up to the mark. Many roadworks had not been taken up according to the guidelines, he said.
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He said that he would not release payment for such works unless quality was maintained.
“I will have to suspend all of you for not adhering to the norms and the guidelines. But I will not do so now. Instead, I will make payment only to the extent of the works completed,” he said.
Due to the lacunae in the reports and drawbacks in the photographs of the works executed attached with the reports, his office had not cleared some of the bills, he said.
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Display boards
Mr. Ponnuraj said that a display board mentioning the details of the work should be compulsorily erected at the places of work. But many contractors were not adhering to this rule and the engineers were not insisting on it being followed.
MLA K. Abhayachandra Jain said that this rule was being violated in the district for many years. “Rules have to be strictly followed in every government work,” he said.
The Deputy Commissioner said that a Union Government team, which had visited the district in March (when he was not the Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada), had sought a report from him on certain violations in the execution of various projects and wanted to know why the engineers were not adhering to the guidelines.