KOCHI: In what could be termed as a jolt to the contractors of the Kochi Corporation, the civic body on Tuesday decided to invite tenders from the government empanelled agencies for carrying out public work under its ambit. The civic body's move to invite the tender came after the contractors expressed reluctance to participate in the tender proceedings for public work citing GST issues. Mayor Soumini Jain announced the decision at the council meeting. "With the contractors backing out from the tender proceedings, plan implementation is moving at a snail's pace. This cannot be allowed.
There are agencies like the RBDCK. The Corporation should invite tenders from those agencies," the Mayor said. She directed the Town Planning Committee chairperson to come up with a proposal before the civic body for inviting government agencies to participate in the tender. The Mayor's quick reply came when both the ruling and Opposition councillors came down against the tardy implementation of projects within the Corporation limits.
Meanwhile, the council decided to allot Rs 50,000 to each division for cleanliness drive and mosquito eradication programmes ahead of the festive season. The fund will be credited to the sanitation fund account of the councillors and it could be used as specified in the l aws of the municipal corporation. The Mayor took the decision to allot the sanitisation fund after the councillors, including K J Antony, K J Basil, Benedict Fernandez and K J Prakasan raised the issue of mosquito menace in the city owing to inadequate cleaning activities.
"People have started cursing us owing to the delay in removing waste from the street. The shortage of staff should be addressed with immediate effect," said O P Sunil during the council session.
Civic body to convene meeting
In the wake of traffic snarl-ups which popped up at the Vyttila junction ahead of the construction of the flyover, the Corporation has decided to convene a joint meeting of people's representatives, police, civic officials and political parties.
The date of the meeting will be finalised later. M Premachandran raised the issue at the council. He said normal life has come to a standstill in the area. According to him, the new traffic regulations have resulted in choking of arterial roads around the junction. " The police didn't consult the civic bodies before implementing such a traffic system," he said.