MARGAO: Margao Municipal Council at its meeting on Wednesday where the chief officer was conspicuous by his absence, decided to go ahead with the tendering process regarding the pre-monsoon work of desilting the drains to avoid water logging during the rains.
Chairperson Pooja Naik said as they were finding it difficult to get labourers, the council decided to go for the tender process and let the contractor arrange the labourers. It may be recalled that the Director of Municipal Administration has asked the municipal council to engage private labourers who would be paid the minimum wages to get the work done.
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MMC has been given Rs 15 lakh to carry out the pre-monsoon works and Pooja explained that only about Rs 60,000 could be spent for each ward of the council from this amount. However, as the council had prepared the files for tendering the work, the councillors decided to go ahead with the tender process, she said.
The work of desilting the drains in entire Margao city is divided into 8 works with each work estimated at around Rs 3 lakh and as this low amount cannot be e-tendered, all the works estimated at around Rs 25 lakh will be tendered as one job, she said.
Municipal funds will be used to cover the additional expenditure after utilizing the Rs 15 lakh sanctioned by DMA under the 14th Finance Commission and the work would in all probability start in the first week of May and expected to end within 30 days.
Pooja said the Chief Officer could not attend the council meeting as he had gone for the drive to remove roadside vendors in the city.
