Irked over the officials missing the June 25 deadline set for completion of the ongoing works for the Godavari Pushkarams, beginning after 20 days, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday pulled up the officials of Roads and Buildings Department, Rajahmundry Municipal Corporation and West Godavari Collector. He gave only five days to finish all the projects.
The officials counted embarrassing moments during the review of the works, when Mr. Naidu said: “Some media reports are claiming that only 50 per cent works have been completed. But, your (officials’) reports say that 70 to 90 per cent works have been already done.”
Announcing a stringent deadline of five days, he said: “I will come on June 30 again and inspect municipal wards of Rajahmundry and Narasapur in West Godavari to see how much work you have completed.” Mr. Naidu conducted an aerial survey and a field visit too before reviewing the progress of works with the officials at the R&B guesthouses in East and West Godavari districts.
In the whirl-wind review meeting that lasted for 45 minutes, Mr. Naidu pulled up R&B Principal Secretary Sam Bob saying that the department had failed in taking precautions in view of the monsoon. “Knowing that monsoon is coming in advance, you have failed to take any precautionary measures. You are damaging the government’s reputation,” he said.
The CM pointed out to the slow pace of works taken up by the Rajahmundry Municipal Corporation (RMC), and said that only 63 per cent works had been completed so far and set June 30 deadline for all major works and June 7 for the patch works.
The Chief Minister reviewed the railway works undertaken near Pushkara Ghat and Havelock Bridge. He asked OSD of Railway Ramesh to keep the historic bridge in a good shape and do some beautification works at the Godavari railway station. He asked the OSD to allow irrigation department to do sand blasting under the bridge at the Pushkara Ghat and Havelock bridge. He suggested running special shuttle services between Kolkata, Odisha and Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada on regular basis during the Pushkarams.
