Tardy progress of the Krishna Pushkaram works has irked Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. Upon finding that the contractor was not available at the Sitanagaram ghat in Guntur district, where some pushkaram works are going on, Mr. Naidu fumed at the contractors for not meeting the deadlines.
“Just 20 days are left for pushkarams and not even 50 per cent of the works are completed. Where is the contractor? Arrest him and blacklist him,” he told officials on Thursday.
Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao intervened and explained to him about the progress of works. Satisfied with it, the Chief Minister asked the officials to construct the ghats up to the water levels and also stack up sand bags at the ghats so as to bring the water within the reach of the devotees. “Ensure enough water availability by the time the river festival began and maintain it till the last day of the 12-day event,” he instructed, and recalled that he personally monitored water levels during the Godavari Pushkarams last year. “Speed up the works and complete them before the commencement of pushkarams,” he said.
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Upon noticing that water stagnated at a few steps at the Krishnaveni ghat, Mr. Naidu asked the officials to correct the levels and tiles. A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) welcomed the Chief Minister there.
Krishna district Collector Babu. A told the Chief Minister that 4,000 cusecs of water was being received at the Prakasam barrage.
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Krishna Pushkarams Special Officer B. Rajasekhar said that three works were awarded to the Sitanagaram ghat contractor.
“The works were found to be of poor quality. The tiles used were not satisfactory and alignments were not proper. A third party would assess the quality of works. If required, the contractor would be arrested or blacklisted,” he said. The works at a few ghats would be completed by July 25 and 26 and at a few other ghats by July 31, the Special Officer said.