Housing and Urban Development Department has received a plethora of complaints from various sources and civil society that much of the developmental work executed within the jurisdiction of 24 Municipal Committees of Jammu region is sub-standard. The complaints also speak of violation of and non-adherence to codal formalities by the agencies that were allotted the work. The complaint also is that undue favours have been shown to some agencies by violating the rules and this should be probed into.
The Department has taken serious note of the complaints. Municipal Committees, come under the administrative control of Directorates of Urban Local Bodies of Kashmir and Jammu. Reacting to the complaints, the Commissioner/ Secretary issued an order for conducting detailed physical verification of works executed by Directorate of Urban Local Bodies Jammu in the jurisdiction of 24 Municipal Committees. During the inspection, the officials would check the standard and quality of works, whether the works have been allotted after observing all the codal formalities such as e-tendering, whether the works executed/under execution are strictly as per the estimates, whether the works have not been executed earlier in last five years and whether the proper signage depicting the cost of work, year of execution etc have been installed at the site of execution. This is for the first time that physical verification of the executed works has been ordered to be completed within two weeks and report submitted to the Department.
This is a welcome decision. If the report of the Technical Officers shows violation of codal formalities or sub-standard work, this should be dealt in accordance with the rules and regulations in operation. Agencies proved to have violated the rules should be black listed and fined for doing sub-standard work. This should be an exemplary decision and it will have far reaching consequences in contributing to good governance.
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