Chandigarh, Oct. 7 -- The withdrawal of financial powers from officers of the UT administration has thrown the entire administrative machinery into a disarray with not a single new tender being issued since October 1. Reason: Officials have refused to move forward with any new projects in the absence of clear directions on what types of projects will require ministry-level approval and which can be cleared locally.

As per information, several tenders for maintenance and development works were opened in the past few days but their allotment was deferred.

Acting on the Centre's directions, UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria had last week issued an order, stripping heads of departments (HoDs), chief engineers, administrative secretaries,...