HYDERABAD, Sept 20: District council convener Nawab Rashid Ali Khan has called for a mechanism to ensure usefulness of development projects and said that road projects have been executed without approval of the council.

Speaking at the council session on Monday, he said that he had received reports of irregularities in the development works. Giving an example, he said that patch-work on Auto Bhan Road had recently been carried out and after two months, the road had again been constructed and payments made separately.

He asked the council members to maintain surveillance over development works because they involved money of tax-payers. Billions of rupees had been spent during three years but the city conditions had not improved, the convener observed and said that some projects had been initiated by some departments on their own.

"I have come to know that payment was made to a department for a certain work but again a cheque was issued for the same work to a contractor. Despite all these wrong doings, officials claim to be innocent," he remarked.

The convener told the members that they should not confine themselves to allocation of schemes but should also keep a vigil on quality of works. By withholding salaries of the officials, he said, the members could have compelled them to ensure quality of work.

He also criticised the members for passing the district budget in a haste which, he said, was leading to various problems. Mr Khan told the members: "Now that your tenure is about to be over, you are afraid of going to your electorates and are raising hue and cry."