Suggesting a broad bare blueprint for revitalisation of all local bodies, Punjab local Government Minister Anil Joshi on Sunday asked the department to come out with master plan to implement it in next six months. Joshi, in a detailed communiqué to the State local Government Secretary Ashok Gupta, said that all works need to be ensured as per standard operating procedure only.
He said that “comprehensive directions” be issued to all concerned in the state so that we are able to provide “efficient and transparent governance to the citizens of the State”. “Storm sewer construction should always start from downstream upwards and no piecemeal construction of sewer or patch work should be permitted. Proper use of super sucker machines, wherever available, should be ensured for desalting of large or main sewers,” Joshi stated in the communiqué.
He added that e-tendering has already been made mandatory for any works above Rs2lakh which needs to be ensured at all levels. “Stringent conditions need to be included in the contract so as to avoid change of specifications and change of scope of allotted work. This becomes more important where the contractors quote very less, that is minus 20 per cent or below,” said Joshi.
The Minister said that third party inspection and social audit as well as material testing of all civil works as per government policy is required to be implemented seriously. At the same time, display boards for ongoing works or contractors and proper CPM chart or work programme at site are also to be ensured by all the urban local bodies, he said, adding that testing of material and concrete should be ensured regularly for which sufficient cubes should be casted each time (10 numbers approximately) so that at least three samples are available for tests required, if any, in future too.
Escalation in costs due to inordinate delays should be avoided and the contractor should be held responsible for the same, he said. The Minister further said that energy efficient street lighting should be used and street switches of town should be switched on at dusk and switched off at 5 am.