On a surprise visit to the western suburbs, Satam took BMC officials to task over the tardy pace of work. He observed that cleanliness work in the city was more quick-paced and instructed that work in suburbs be completed on a war footing.

Satam, who was accompanied by Municipal Commissioner Girish Gokhale, Additional Commissioner Shreedhar Joshi and several ward officers, visited Bandra, Vile Parle and Milan subway at Santacruz.

At Rasraj Nalla near Milan subway, the drains which were reportedly cleaned barely a week ago were strewn with litter. But civic officials argued that they were not at fault and said that residents of the slums on either side of the nullah were responsible. The mayor ordered that the drains should be cleaned again.

Meanwhile, deputy mayor Gopal Shetty, who visited the eastern suburbs also appeareddissatisfied with the work done. Shetty, who is in charge of the civic water supply and sewerage portfolio, told reporters that fifty per cent of the work was already over. ``I have asked the officials to expedite and complete the work by May 30, 1998. If it is not completed in time, we will initiate action against the contractors and take the extreme step of scrapping the contract system altogether. Next year, the BMC will itself do it at the ward level,'' he declared.

When it took some six weeks to attain fifty per cent results, BMC sources said that it's improbable that the remaining work will be completed in a week's time.

A senior official said although such directives were being issued, the civic administration was finding it difficult to procure human resources to undertake drainage cleanliness. A lot more dependence is being placed on machines, but they can't be used in smaller drains, he added.