The repair and maintenance work in most of the primary schools under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation is far from completion even though they are to reopen on Monday after summer vacations.
The civic body was supposed to complete the repair works during the vacation period, but only 20 per cent of the work has been completed so far. This means the classes will resume with maintenance work on. The students will have to continue their classes with leaking roofs, cracking walls and unhygienic toilets.
Officials said that the Engineering Department of the Corporation was responsible for executing the repair and maintenance work, but no bidder turned up for most of the tenders invited for the purpose.
The work was scheduled to be completed before July 1 so that the classes do not get interrupted due to construction activities. A senior official said that in a recent review meeting Municipal Commissioner PK Gupta pulled up Deputy Commissioners, officials of the Engineering and Education Department for failing to complete the necessary repair work.
"In the review meeting, the Engineering Department claimed that around 40 per cent repair work has been completed. But, the Education Department officials differed, saying only 10 to 15 per cent work was completed. The Education Department will be submitting its report in the next meeting," the official added.
"Every year during vacation all repair works are carried out in the schools. These works include repairing of ceilings, doors, toilets, and electrical works," said an official. However, the work could not be taken up as the Engineering department failed to attract bidders for the repair work. "In the review meeting, it was brought to the Commissioner's notice that around 90 per cent of the bid had not got any response from the contractors, so the repair could not take off," he added.
Explaining the reason behind the cold response of contractors, a senior official said the repair work required was not much, so contractors did not show interest in these projects. "Cost of these repair works range between only a few thousands to Rs 1 or 2 lakh," he added.
However, the leader of House in NMC, Mahendra Nagpal said that the work could not be completed due to strike called by municipal contractors and lack of coordination among the Education and Engineering Departments. "We will be issuing a warning to the Engineering Department to complete all the repair works of the schools within a week failing which they will have to face strict action," Nagpal said.
Earlier in March, the Education Department of the NMC had sent a detail list of repair works that needed to be carried out in its schools to the Engineering Department.
After receiving the list, the Engineering Department had assured that the work would be completed by June 30. The North Delhi Corporation has 788 schools under its jurisdiction in which over 4.5 lakh students study.