Rough road ahead of new civic chief

Karimnagar: In spite of the Centre declaring the city as one of the Smart City projects, the road development works in the city are going on at a snail’s pace and the city dwellers are growing impatient with each passing day with the performance of the city Municipal Corporation.

The style of functioning of the Corporation is akin to laying roads and relaying. While the Corporation is working on another road, the road laid earlier will get damaged within a year exposing stones beneath the surface.

The road-widening works are still going on since the advent of the TRS government to power. The main roads laid by the R&B department are smacking of corruption.

The officials are not yet through with the detailed project report (DPR) on the smart city and there is no progress in gathering public opinion in the city on the project.

The corporators are said to be evincing no interest in collecting public opinion in wards as people are questioning them on various development works while airing their views on the smart city.

The style of functioning of Karimnagar Municipal Corporation is akin to one step forward and two steps backwards, it is alleged. The worse state of affairs in the civic body is attributed to the style of functioning of the elected people’s representatives.

In spite of three IAS officers heading the corporation, there was no improvement in its functioning, it is alleged. Right from the first Commissioner of the civic body, Srikesh Latkar to the current incumbent Sasanka, all of them were juniors.

The veteran politicians allegedly meddled with the work of the commissioners. This stands as an example of how deep-rooted was corruption in the civic body. An officer refusing to sign a file citing corruption was made to proceed on leave for 10 days. It shows the clout of the corrupt people’s representatives.

An elected people’s representative openly threatened Sasanka that he will meet the same fate as that of his predecessors if he did not cooperate with them.

It indicates the seriousness of the situation. Previous commissioner Krishna Bhaskar who worked to some extent on Smart city DPR, was later transferred to Sircilla as the District Collector derailing preparation of the DPR.

For the new incumbent commissioner, preparing the DPR would be a Herculean task. The civic body is notorious for its lack of time sense and deep-rooted corruption.

Right from the issue of birth and death certificates to house building permissions, greasing of palms of the civic body officials is necessary, it is alleged. The situation turned worse after the municipality became a corporation.

Officials report for office very late and very rarely turn up at the offices. The slow pace of functioning and lack of coordination among officials is affecting the development works.

Only time will tell whether the new incumbent commissioner turns a new leaf in running the civic body or follows the footsteps of his predecessors.

According to a senior citizen Srinivas of the city, for the past 11 years the development works are going on with no conclusion. Travelling on the roads is akin to hell with indiscriminate digging of roads.

According to another senior citizen Prabhakar, smart city status is still a long way to go as the officials are found wanting in executing many development works to earn the status.

City Mayor Ravinder Singh said that funds to the city under the smart city project are not yet released. Development of R&B roads in the city would be completing in three or four months. Repair works to internal roads are under way. He attributed the worse condition of roads to his predecessors’ omissions and commissions.

Roads were dug indiscriminately in the name of laying underground drainage. It will take some more time for the city to become beautiful.