Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Oct 23: As the quality in respect of some works conducted by using grants from the local area development funds of the MPs and MLAs are found to be of a very low quality, suspension of three junior engineers of the zilla panchayat, who have been held directly responsible for the lapses, has been recommended, informed Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner (DC), V Ponnuraj.

Speaking to reporters here on Thursday October 22, he said that during the recent inspection, most out of the 15 works recently executed in Bantwal and Puttur taluks were found to be below par. "While the specified thickness of asphalted roads need to be 17 cms, the roads were found to be just 7 to 11 cms thick. No quality was maintained. The roads were found to be brittle, and it was found that a little digging gave out a powdery substance. It is clear that bitumen and crushed stones were not used as per the standard practices. At many places, the roads were washed away in the rain. All these lapses have been viewed seriously," he explained.

He said, it is clear from the above, that the concerned engineers had not supervised or inspected these works. As such, bills of the contractors have been withheld, and they will be released, only if the concerned execute the works properly again.  Resenting the money of the government going down the drains, he asserted that there is no question of compromising on the quality of public works.  He also wished that the people's representatives will not bring pressure for early execution of the works under their grants, as haste results in poor quality work. The roads which were found to be of poor quality were Sampya-Tingaladi Road, Aryapu-Sampya-Eliyatadka Road, Narimogaru road, Bettampady Road, Pudu- Amai Road protective wall and Kolnad Road.

The junior engineers, Ravindra Rao and Chandrakant from Puttur, and Subhaschandra from Bantwal, have been suspended with immediate effect, informed zila panchayat chief executive officer, Shivshankar.