Games contractors missing deadlines to be blacklisted

Having already expressed her nervousness at the pace of preparations for the Commonwealth Games, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday declared that the “Delhi Government will not listen to any excuses for delay in projects completion and contractors responsible for delays would be blacklisted apart from other contractual actions against them”.

Delivering the annual address at an officer’s meet at Delhi Secretariat, the Chief Minister cautioned against complacency: “We cannot afford to let down our nation and we are committed to make Commonwealth Games 2010 a grand success.”

Flanked on both sides by her Cabinet colleagues and Chief Secretary, Ms. Dikshit directed all the departments involved with the preparations to take appropriate steps for completing the Games-related projects on time and to work in tandem to avoid any confusion and duplication of work that may lead to a delay.
Civility campaign

She informed that the Delhi Government has also launched a civility campaign to bring awareness on courtesy, etiquettes and good manners in order to make the event a “memorable” one.

As the host city, she said, Delhi has also got an excellent opportunity to take up enormous projects because of the Games. The developed infrastructure will become an integral part of the city for all time to come, she noted.

With the cleaning of the Yamuna remaining another area of concern as after spending of crores of rupees it still flows dirty, Ms. Dikshit said: “It is now time to bring improvement in water supply and take up cleaning of river Yamuna at the earliest.”

She said the cleaning work would be started in “true spirit” within one year and declared that there will be no dearth of funds for this project. Calling for improvement in the collection mechanisms of all departments for generating required revenue, the Chief Minister said the Delhi Government was also looking at doing away with delays in delivery of basic services. For this, she said, service level agreements would be reached on services like issue of certificates and licences for making the delivery time-bound and officers failing to meet the time-frame would be liable for a fine.