In the wake complaints about irregularities in floating and finalising tenders related to maintenance of streetlights in the twin cities, the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation on Saturday decided to cancel the whole process and constitute an experts’ committee to assist the corporation in starting it afresh.
The order was issued by Hubballi-Dharwad Mayor Shivu Hiremath after floor leader Sudhir Saraf raised the issue of poor maintenance of street lights and irregularities in awarding tenders during the zero hour of the municipal council meeting.
Displaying documents on irregularities in awarding tenders on streetlight maintenance for 12 zones of the corporation, Mr. Sudhir said that the tenders were floated based on a survey done in 2009 on the number of streetlights in the twin cities.
Concurring with him, the former Mayor Viranna Savadi pointed out that as any tender worth above Rs. 30 lakh had to be referred to the Standing Committee on Public Works for approval, the officials, in collusion with the bidders, had fixed bids a few hundred rupees short of the Rs. 30-lakh mark.
He suggested setting up a committee of experts to assist the HDMC in framing guidelines and installation of timers for saving power consumption and other technical issues.
The former opposition leader Ganesh Tagargunti joined Mr. Savadi in demanding cancellation of the tenders and taking help of experts’ committee. Councillor Laxman Gandgalekar drew the attention of the council on the decision taken by it earlier on blacklisting a contractor, entrusted with streetlight maintenance.
Mr. Hiremath ordered for cancellation of the tenders and directed the officials to hold a survey on the number of the streetlights in the twin cities before floating fresh tenders. He also said that an experts’ committee would be set up to assist the officials on the technical issues and framing guidelines.
