Patna Municipal Corporation. Telegraph picture

Patna, Jan. 24: In a bid to strengthen its services, the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has given additional powers to its technocrats.

Sources in the civic body said as part of the initiative, the PMC has given senior engineers of the water supply department the power to plan and implement various projects on their own.

Now, the chief engineer will be able to approve projects costing up to Rs 30 lakh, executive engineers will be in a position to approve projects upto Rs 25 lakh and assistant engineers will be able to give clearance to projects upto Rs 1 lakh.

All these clearances were earlier given by the municipal commissioner.

“The old process used to cause a lot of unnecessary delay. Our effort is to ensure that urgent matters are attended to faster,” said PMC commissioner Manish Kumar.

Kumar added that similar steps will soon be taken for other wings of the civic body.

According to officials, the provision will mean that if the water supply pump of any area goes out of order because of a technical snag or any other reason, the assistant engineer will be in a position to get the dysfunctional machine repaired.

“Rs 2.5 lakh each will be deposited in advance in the account of executive engineer for motor or pump repairing in case of a fault in any of these machines. Similarly Rs 5 lakh will be deposited transformer repair. It will mean when the crisis arises, the official will be in a position to promptly allocate money for the repairing,” a senior corporation official said.

“As soon as the money is spent on these works, same amount will be deposited again for any impending crisis. This will ensure that pumps, motors and transformers are never out of order in any area for long,” said the official.

Officials said that now the technocrats will not be able to give the excuse of lack of funds for necessary work and added that the move is a part of the initiative to strengthen water supply and maintenance system in the areas under PMC limits.

The official claimed that the new arrangement would also make the engineers more accountable.

“Officials have this habit to pass the buck. Moreover, the public faces undue problems as allocation of money for these works take time as each and every project has to be approved by the commissioner,” he added.