Times
of India: Ahmedabad: Friday, 24 July 2015.
If you are
wondering, why the roads in your area barely survive for a year, why the
recently laid drains have suddenly burst or why have there been water supply
problems in your area frequently, blame it on Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's
(AMC) failure to refer them to vigilance committee.
It was on May
30, eight years ago that the AMC had brought out a circular that required that
all civic works that cost Rs 50,000 or above before being executed were to be
routed through vigilance department. However, as on today, the AMC has admitted
that all projects between 2007 and 2012 were never referred to the vigilance
committee despite the circular.
This was the
period when a majority of JNNURM projects pertaining to BRTS, roads, urban
renewal, drainage, storm water drains, and solid waste were being implemented
in the city. An RTI filed by a Kalupur resident, Pankaj Bhatt, has revealed
that in just one year, which was 2013, the engineering divisions of the AMC
referred 1,132 projects after the finance department pointed out that there was
a 2007 vigilance circular. In 2014 the engineers referred 452 projects to the
vigilance department.
According to
the circular, various engineering departments were to provide the details about
the civic work, location of the work, cost finalized for the contractor,
material used in construction activity, quality check reports while the civic works
is on and other such stringent requirements. A list of at least 15 such quality
checks has been instructed.
"According
to the circular, it was only if the vigilance department cleared the case that
the contractor was paid. But the notification has been ignored for quite
sometime now. Instead the provision of pre-audit was introduced for road
projects two years ago. But that too has been discontinued," said a senior
AMC official.
"The
vigilance circular was only honored when the finance department sought
accountability from various engineering divisions," added the official.