Cuttack, June 23: The Congress today turned the heat on the civic body for non-execution of development projects that have been pending for the past couple of years.

Ten party councillors demonstrated against the municipal corporation's inability to complete, among others, the ambitious Town Hall renovation project and Debigada portal. The civic body had earlier decided to construct a welcome arc at Debigada, the traditional ghat for immersing Durga idols in the river Kathajodi during Dussehra.

The Congress also accused officials of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation of favouring Hyderabad's Ramky Environ Engineers Limited, whose agreement for solid-waste management was cancelled in April.

"Despite cancellation of the agreement, the civic body has temporarily extended Ramky's licence instead of inviting fresh global tenders," said ward No. 37 Congress councillor Dharmanand Patra.

The Congress also trained its guns at the BJD - the majority party in the 59-ward council - for failing to address basic problems faced by the city residents. Councillors expressed concern over delays in de-silting drainage channels.

"The drainage channels are yet to be de-silted. The annual exercise used to be completed by the first week of June. But, this time, the corporation has failed to complete it on time," said ward No. 4 councillor Giribala Behera.

Behera also alleged that the municipal corporation had not convened a council meeting in almost six months.

Civic officials have violated provisions to hold a meeting every month according to the municipal act, Behera said.

Dharmanand Patra alleged that the corporation had turned a blind eye to the problems faced by commuters due to arbitrary digging of roads for the integrated sanitation project executed with assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The Congress alleged that accidents had become common due to lack of adequate safety measures at construction sites and poor road conditions.

Senior civic officials, however, claimed the council meeting could not be held due to the monsoon session of the Odisha Assembly and the subsequent model code of conduct that was imposed for the June 3 bypoll to ward No. 21.

"We are in the final stages of preparing draft proposals and the terms and conditions for inviting fresh tenders for solid waste management. We will invite the tenders shortly," said municipal commissioner Gyana Das.

Senior officials said they would convene a special meeting shortly to chalk out a strategy for speeding up the city's pending projects.