Berhampur: Many ambitious projects within the civic area have been stuck due to absence of popular representation in Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) as the state government dissolved all municipal bodies across the state a year back.
Ex-commissioner of BeMC Nikhil Pawan Kalyan had an ambitious project to make ‘Digital Door Numbering’ (DDN) of all the households within the civic area. As per the project proposal, DDN would provide detailed information on location, ownership and postal addresses of households on the BeMC website.
Moreover, many public-toilet facilities worth over Rs 70 lakh which were set up in different parts of the city have been discarded after inauguration. Under the Odisha Disaster Recovery Project (ODRP), steps were taken in January 2014 for development of slum areas within Berhampur which has been left halfway.
Beautification work of Ramalingam Tank in the city worth over Rs 9 crores was started in 2016 and the project still remains incomplete. Many projects initiated by present BeMC commissioner Chakravarti Singh Rathore have met with the same fate.
Another project worth over Rs 1 crore meant to make Berhampur city a free WiFI zone, is not working properly. An ATM drinking water project for city-dwellers has also become defunct in the meanwhile.
Likewise, solar electrification of the city bus stand, tagging of stray and domestic cattle, Janibili drinking water project worth over Rs 400 crores have suffered. Sewage treatment plant at Mahuda has become defunct, residents alleged.
The Janibili project which started about two years back has added to the woes of local people. Residents strongly resent that roads dug at several points to lay pipelines have added to their troubles.
New projects are announced at regular intervals by the civic authorities, but previous projects are left halfway. Announcements are widely publicised in media to take credit for various projects, locals said.
PNN