Coimbatore: To encourage public participation and to ensure transparency, details of the government projects that are being implemented in the district should be made available to all, demand city-based activists.“Norms mandate that details about government project like budget, date of commencement, implementation period and details of the contractor should be displayed at the construction site. But, they are not enforced,” says K Kathirmathiyon of the Coimbatore Consumer Cause. “The details should be displayed at least in the website.”“Numerous projects are being implemented in the district, but the details remain hidden to the public. As a result, public could express their opinion only when a project is completed and by the time, it becomes too late,” he says, referring to the lack of transparency. “Projects, including the Gandhipuram Flyover project, were implemented without getting public opinion. As a result, they wasted crores of rupees.”CM Jeyaraman of the Citizen’s Voice Coimbatore flays the badly-made infrastructure that cause inconvenience to the public. “Only if the blueprints were made accessible to the public, the mistakes could have been notified earlier. Coimbatore has a lot of engineering colleges and experts. The government should seek opinion from them as it would not just benefit the government but also the students. The flaws hidden to the expert eyes could be visible to the commoner’s eye.”Citing a recent Supreme Court judgement that had directed builders to display the sanction plan and layout plans along its specification as approved by competent authority at the construction site or at public gathering, Jeyaraman asks, “When the court mandates even private players to display important details about their projects, why shouldn’t the government do it? Apart from ensuring transparency, it would encourage public participation. If participation is increased, they would start questioning the illegalities and it would pave a path to reduce corruption.”In a petition to the collector, Jeyaraman sought more transparency on government projects.

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