Ropar, Nangal civic bodies await government clearance for development projects

With the government deciding to transfer the power of approving resolutions passed by Municipal Councils from director local governments to administrative secretary of the department, the members of civic bodies in Ropar district are apprehending more delays.

Members of Ropar and Nangal municipal councils rued the delay in approvals for resolutions passed in their respective Houses, saying they had already been waiting to hear back from the office of director local government. Now that the power has been transferred, files would have to be moved to administrative secretary, further slowing down the process.

Ropar Municipal Council president Sanjay Verma when contacted by The Tribune said the local body has been awaiting approval of resolutions for development works worth Rs 12 crore for the last three years.

“The developmental works were to be executed in the city as per demands of the elected municipal councillors. However, despite council approving the works, the director local government office had been holding approval for them. Now that the powers of director local government have been clipped, it seems the delay for approval of development works passed by council is going increase inordinately,” he said.

Verma said they have recently awarded tenders for road works worth Rs 2.4 crore, which had been passed by the council in 2021. The civic body, he added, was yet to receive the funds for the tenders awarded to the contractors.

Paramjit Singh Pamma, a councillor of the Nangal Municipal Council said that their House passed resolutions for developmental works worth about Rs 10 crore in December last year.

“It has been seven months but the approval for tenders is yet to be received from the director local government office. Most of these works related to construction of streets, parks, erecting street lights, maintenance of parks, construction of roads, playgrounds and other maintenance works in the city,” he added.

In some cases, Singh said, the tenders were issued and technical bids cleared but the financial bids have been withheld by the local bodies department.

Singh also came down heavily on the government, saying it was not allowing elected local bodies to function on their own. “It is a violation of the local government’s act. The senior bureaucrats can withhold the resolutions of MCs only if there was some illegality in it. Otherwise, they have to send it back to MC within 15 days as per rules. Now that powers of even the director local government have been transferred to administrative secretary, the approval for works is going to be delay further. The delay in approval of works was seriously hampering the upkeep of cities,” he said.