The report carried by The Telegraph on December 30, 2010

Patna, Jan. 21: The role of district magistrates (DMs) in miscellaneous construction works carried out in districts will minimise soon. The state government has decided to set up local area engineering divisions to execute the constructions that do not come under the domain of any department.

At present, DMs carry out such works taking help of engineers from different departments.

Every local area engineering division would have technical experts right from the rank of junior engineers to chief engineers. They would be responsible for construction of panchayat sarkar bhavans, anganwadi kendras, godowns, community buildings, lanes, drains, graveyards, cremation centres and passengers’ sheds among others. They would function under the supervision of planning and development department.

The Telegraph had reported on December 30, 2010, about the state government’s move to reduce the workload of DMs so that they can concentrate on their main task related to regulatory and supervisory works.

A source in the planning and development department told The Telegraph: “The work to chart out the structure of the local area engineering division is underway and it will be put up for the state government’s approval soon. After the state government puts its seal on the proposal, the process of posting engineers in the divisions will start.”

At the onset, engineers from the rural works department would be posted in the local area engineering divisions on deputation. Later, full-time engineers would be appointed.

Reducing the workload of DMs apart, the state government is working out a plan to address the issue of regional imbalance within the state. Details are being worked out to decide the parameters on the basis of which the backward area index for infrastructure of all the districts would be created. The planning and development department has been entrusted with the task of preparing the index.

“Initially, road connectivity, electrification, drinking water facility, number of school buildings and number of houses would be taken into count for preparing the index. But other factors can be included in this list before finally undertaking the index preparation work,” said a senior official of the planning and development department.