Smart City execution by previous govt, a failure, says House panel

TIRUCHY: Several irregularities have been detected in the Smart city 2020 programme and we will recommend the government to initiate action against those behind the issue, said Public Accounts Committee of Assembly Chairperson K Selvaperunthagai here on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after inspecting various projects in Tiruchy, the Congress MLA said that the Smart City 2020 project should have been completed by 2022, but several works were still pending. So, we have asked the officials to expedite the works and complete them within the stipulated period. “We have inspected the Smart City project in several districts across the State but it is a failure in most places as the previous government was keen on swindling the funds allotted by the Centre for the initiative. In fact, it looks like no proper study was conducted before commencing the works. So we have decided to recommend the government to initiate action”, Selvaperunthagai said.

Stating that the committee has inspected the programmes undertaken by as many as 14 departments, the Committee chairman said, the quality control equipment procured for the Aavin unit in 2016-17 were not properly maintained and thus Rs 62 lakh has been wasted. “A detailed inquiry will be conducted soon”, he said.

He said that there was no progress in the Cauvery-Gundaru linking project despite an allocation of Rs 900 crore but the money has been spent without any improvement in the project, he said.

The members of the committee MLAs Sinthanai Selvan, Velmurugan, Saraswathi, Maragatham, Gandhi Rajan, Marimuthu, Kalaivanan and Assembly Secretary Srinivasan. Tiruchy Collector M Pradeep Kumar were present during inspection.