Nagpur: Jolted by claims of contractors about violation of their own circular by officials of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), the Chief Engineer Pradip Khawle reached out to their Association to defuse the crisis.
The Nagpur Municipal Contractors Association had pointed out to Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Radhakrishnan B about Slum Department’s alleged twisting of norms wherein the work estimates were divided by circumventing NMC’s own circular. Though top brass of NMC chose to sit over the plaints after the reports appeared in newspapers, the Chief Engineer was tasked with tackling the crisis.
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Wednesday 26Feb. 2025
On Thursday, the office-bearers of Nagpur Municipal Contractors Association were called by the Chief Engineer, Public Works, NMC, to sort out the matter. Manoj Talewar, Superintending Engineer, Public Health Engineering, and Avinash Barhate, Executive Engineer, Slum Department, were also present during the talks held at the civic body’s headquarters.
The Municipal Commissioner had ordered the Chief Engineer to inquire into the claims of contractors and sort out the matter. During the discussion, the Chief Engineer reportedly defended the tenders floated by the Slum Department and claimed that there were no break-ups of works. Further the Chief Engineer acquainted the contractors that the work orders from Slum Department were under separate budget heads and the same are not barred by circular as to uniform single tender for similar nature of works.
Khawle was sure that all the work orders of the Slum Department are as per the regular procedure and no rules were found violated. However, contractors remained firm on their claim and said they have nothing against any individual officers or any department of NMC, but in case they feel any irregularity is being committed they are duty bound to bring it to notice of higher-ups.
