Councillors to get only funds worth R50 lakh this fiscal year

As against the promised Rs 1.55 crore for development work this fiscal year, it seems the MCD councillors will get just Rs 50 lakh. With less than 40 days left for the financial year to end, the MCD will be processing projects worth Rs 50 lakh manually. For the rest Rs 1 crore, they will have to wait as orders will be processed through e-tendering.

As against the promised Rs 1.55 crore for development work this fiscal year, it seems the MCD councillors will get just Rs 50 lakh. With less than 40 days left for the financial year to end, the MCD will be processing projects worth Rs 50 lakh manually. For the rest Rs 1 crore, they will have to wait as orders will be processed through e-tendering.

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“We will manually process orders worth Rs 50 lakh and the booking will start soon. For the rest, we will have to follow the normal procedure,” said Anshu Prakash, additional commissioner (Engineering), MCD.

The opposition Congress disrupted the MCD House on Wednesday over the issue of making bookings worth
Rs 1.55 crore as was announced by the MCD, after opposition Congress councillors said the engineering department has not started taking work orders, as the additional funds have not been released.

“There is hardly anytime left for the year to end. How will they finish the tendering process? So far, not many councillors have prepared an estimate. If they are going to allot work through the normal process, then chances are that this money will lapse,” said Jai Kishan Sharma, leader of the Opposition in MCD.

Under the manual process, estimates will be quickly approved by the MCD officials and tendering will be done on a short notice. Work can also be awarded to contractors under the Unit Rate Method (URM).

According to Yogender Chandolia, of the 272 councillors only 29 have made bookings under the additional funds sanctioned by the MCD in its budget 2011-12.