General

Cuttack Municipal Corporation's petrol pump renovated

Saturday, 28 December 2013 00:00 administrator

The Times of India 28.12.2013

Cuttack Municipal Corporation's petrol pump renovated

CUTTACK: The lone fuel station owned by Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC), which was in a shamble till a few months ago, has been renovated at a cost of Rs 1.22 crore.

The Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has developed the infrastructure at the petrol pump and made it more consumer-friendly.

As part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme, IOCL has spent over Rs 1.22 crore on the filling station and equipped it with toilets, ATM counter, snack centre, rest room. Even the filling machines have been repaired.

"The Kathajodi filling station established in the 70s by CMC was in a very bad shape and required urgent repairs. Thankfully, it has been renovated as customers were facing lots of problems," said a senior officer of the CMC.

"The filling station has got a complete makeover and turned more attractive. Now, we will be able to provide better services to consumers," said commissioner of CMC Pratap Das.

It will be inaugurated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday.

The civic body earns atleast Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh a month from this petrol pump located at Ganesh Ghat. "Our profits will increase as the new facilities like ATM and snack centre will definitely attract more customers to it," added Das.

CMC officials stated that on special request IOCL authorities renovated the the petrol pump. "Since inception we have been procuring fuel for the filling station from IOCL. Looking at its dilapidated condition, we had requested the IOCL authorities to renovate it and they extended full support to us," said mayor of Cuttack Saumendra Ghose.

Most of state’s urban slums on private lands

Thursday, 26 December 2013 07:04 administrator

Deccan Chronicle 26.12.2013

Most of state’s urban slums on private lands

Hyderabad: While Andhra Pradesh has the second largest slum population in the country after Maharashtra, government surveys show that about 60 per cent of urban slums in the state are located on privately owned land.

Interestingly, the National Sample Survey Office report states that half of these slums have been recognised by the government as “notified” slums despite them being located on privately owned lands.

According to the NSSO, notified slums are “areas notified as slums by the concerned state governments, municipalities, corporations, local bodies or development authorities”.

The NSSO report states that 60 per cent of all urban slums, both notified and non-notified, in the state are on private lands while about 58.7 per cent of “notified” slums are located on privately-owned lands.

Officials, however, say that legislations allow for the government to notify slums even if they are located on private lands. Different states have different definitions of notified slums. The Andhra Pradesh Slum Improvement (Acquisition of Land) Act empowers the government to notify “any” land as “slum area” when it is satisfied that the area is a source of danger to public health, safety by reason of being low lying, insanitary or squalid.

“The notification of slums is basically under the Slum Improvement Act. There are two stages of notification, preliminary and final. So even it is a privately owned land, the government can notify it. The person will always try to vacate and such areas are always stuck in litigation,” a senior official of the Revenue department said.

“It is still a difficult issue. Many such cases are pending in land grabbing and other courts,” the official added. The NSSO report also added that only about 40 per cent of the urban slums benefitted from projects like the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in the state.

However, the state is now trying to bring in legislation to cover such projects. “The Act is still in draft form. Till now all these projects were only Government Orders but with this Act, they will be covered under law,” a senior government official said.

Nashik Municipal Corporation to buy shoes, socks worth Rs 2 crore for students

Thursday, 26 December 2013 00:00 administrator

The Times of India 26.12.2013

Nashik Municipal Corporation to buy shoes, socks worth Rs 2 crore for students

NASHIK: The education department of the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) will buy shoes and socks worth Rs 2 crore for students of as many as 127 NMC-run schools in the next academic year.

"Last year, we had planned for uniforms but the time taken to prepare the proposal and then getting it sanctioned delayed the entire distribution process. Therefore, we decided to plan everything in advance for this year. Each student from standards I to VII will be given two pairs of shoes and socks, respectively," said an NMC official.

The officials said the civic body has called for online tenders from private companies for the purpose. "Orders for shoes and socks will be placed, once everything is decided," he said.

The official said that taking a cue from last year's delay in buying the uniforms, the education department has also prepared a proposal for buying uniforms for 13 of its secondary schools. "The proposal has been sent to the municipal commissioner for approval following which we will float the tenders," said the official.

Local Herb Can Fight Endosulfan Toxicity in Soil

Friday, 20 December 2013 07:13 administrator

The New Indian Express 20.12.2013

The people living in the endosulfan-affected regions of the state, are facing risks due to the contamination of soil, but there is now a silver lining.

The Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM), Kozhikode, has found a technique to remove endosulfan toxicity from soil by utilising a locally available plant ‘Chittaratha’ (Alpinia calcarata).

The study conducted by P S Harikumar, Scientist, CWRDM and K Jesitha a Research Fellow, found that the endosulfan can be removed from the soil during the first five days by applying nanoscale - Zero Valent Iron (nZVI) to the root of ‘Chittaratha’ plant. Complete removal is possible within 15 days.

“Normally the degradation of endosulfan from soil takes years. Our experiment involves applying nZVI to the root of the plant using enhanced phytoremediation technique for the removal of endosulfan. Among the different plant species selected for the study, Chittaratha (Alpinia calcarata) was found to be most effective,” says Harikumar.

The plants aged 2 weeks were transplanted to pots containing soil artificially spiked with endosulfan and nZVI. “We kept monitoring the soil till the concentration of endosulfan reached below instrument detection limit,” Harikumar said.

‘Chittaratha’ is a common plant and the low-cost technique can easily be adopted in areas with endosulfan contamination. “Nano Zero Valent Iron is emerging as new option for the treatment of contaminated soil and groundwater,” he said.

M A Rahman, an environment activist, says that in Kasargod, recent studies have proved that soil is free of endosulfan. However he said that the situation at Muthalamada in Palakkad and Chakkittapara in Kozhikode is not known.

“The findings of the CWRDM should be seen a positive one. But attempts are being made not to accept the findings,” he said.

44 illegal colonies to get amenities

Thursday, 19 December 2013 10:51 administrator

The Times of India 19.12.2013

44 illegal colonies to get amenities

Gurgaon: With elections round the corner, the Haryana cabinet on Wednesday slashed development charges to be paid by occupants and owners of unauthorized colonies to get civic amenities provided by the municipality.

With this, without authorizing any illegal colony, the government will provide residents with all basic services. On the one hand, this will help the government in wooing lakhs of people living in such colonies, while on the other hand, the government will be able to save itself from being labelled populist.

According to the revised fee structure, those in the unauthorized colonies of Gurgaon will have to pay Rs 150 per square yard as development charge. According to estimates, more than 30% of the city's population lives in as many as 44 illegal colonies spread across 1,217 acres in different parts of the city.

The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon ( MCG) is gearing up to provide amenities like water, electricity, roads, streetlights and sewage disposal to the residents living in these areas.

However, around 2 lakh people living in 22 colonies within the 900-metre restricted zone around the Air Force ammunition depot, will not benefit from the scheme.

There are a total of 542 illegal colonies in Haryana. Residents of such colonies have time and again held protests demanding civic amenities.

In the same cabinet meeting, the government hiked pension for old, widows and disabled from Rs 750 per month to Rs 1,000 from January 1, while pension for destitutes was increased from Rs 200 per month to Rs 500 per month.

The cabinet has also given the nod for special survey for roadside vendors operating within the jurisdiction of civic bodies.