Fail deadline, get blacklisted: CM Sheila Dikshit

With several Commonwealth Games still struggling to meet the deadline, a nervous CM issued a warning to contractors constructing roads and pavements for Delhi. Any delay beyond the August 31, the deadline for completion of all Games-related projects, will lead to a blacklisting. In a meeting with contractors, CM Sheila Dikshit said the firms that don’t meet the deadline would be penalized and blacklisted.

Any compromise with the quality of work will not be tolerated, she said.

“Do not put us to shame. Your little carelessness will bring bad name to the entire nation,” she reportedly told the contractors.

Senior Delhi government officials said the CM was concerned about reports of stadiums, pavements and roads being washed away in just one spell of rain. Dikshit’s cabinet colleagues and senior bureaucrats had also found tardy work and poor construction quality during their inspections of under-construction venues and roads.

Dikshit also asked the contractors to bring any kind of obstacle to the notice of the government to ensure the the matter was resolved quickly.

With little more than two months to the Games, the city government is under tremendous pressure to complete all Games-related projects in time. Early last week, Dikshit announced a month’s salary to the entire team of engineers as reward if the Games get over successfully. She also exhorted the engineers and workers to work round the clock.

Senior government officials said two important arterial roads, a couple of flyovers, and several streetscaping and streetlighting projects are yet to be completed. Some of them, accept officials, may take more than a month to complete.

On complaints of delay in payment raised by the contractors, Dikshit said money would not be a problem.