Replaced water pipe brings relief to citizens
Wednesday, 11 December 2013 11:38
administrator
The Times of India 11.12.2013 Replaced water pipe brings relief to citizens
LUCKNOW: Residents of old Lucknow, comprising areas of Chowk, Aminabad, Rajajipuram, Aishbagh, Charbagh, Mashakganj and others endured poor water supply for two days since Sunday as Jal Nigam laboured to complete replacement and interconnection of an old raw water pipeline of Gaughat pumping station with a new one.
According to official at Jal Nagam, "Water supply would be normalised completely on Wednesday morning to the areas affected, although there will be at least two hours of water supply on Tuesday evening too."
"We were not affected much, as we were informed beforehand about the repair plan through news reports," said Afiyah Sayeed, a homemaker from Rajajipuram.
But not everyone was happy, as in the case of Vivek Kumar, resident of Lalbagh. He said, "for the last two days we have been receiving water for only half an hour and the pressure is weak." There were no water tankers in the area from Jal Nigam, he added.
Similar predicament was related by Umesh Yadav resident of Charbagh. Reports of poor water supply came also from Wazirganj, Aryanagar, Mashakganj, Rajendra Nagar, Mawaiya and other areas.
But as per senior officials of Jal Nigam, "there was not much demand of water during interconnection process due to winter season, but we did send water tankers to places like Aliganj, New Hyderabad, Aishbagh and Babuganj when demanded."
Earlier, it was reported that at least 60 water tankers would be used in several parts of the city to fulfill the demand created by water shortage.
Although residents of several places, such as Mohammad Arif of Akbari Gate, praised the department for its prompt effort in finishing the work in given time.
Replacement and interconnection of pipeline, refilling of trench and reinstatement of the dug-up area were completed by 5pm and water supply was restored by 6:30pm in Old Lucknow.
Gaughat pumping station which has a capacity of 250 MLD supplies water to population of more than 6 lakh in Cis-Gomti area every day. Seven kilometer raw pipeline of 1200mm capacity had worn out and was prone to major leakages, therefore its new pipeline of 1300mm was laid and interconnected with the station.
New pipeline is supposed to increase the capacity which is a part of infrastructure enhancement under JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) work.
Vibhutipura lake: A success story in making
Wednesday, 11 December 2013 10:02
administrator
The New Indian Express 11.12.2013
Vibhutipura lake: A success story in making
Vibhutipura Lake, located near old HAL airport, at Lal Bahadur
Shastri Nagar, Varthur, is another lake among many, that’s getting a
face lift this year. “A few years ago when we first shifted here, this
was a beautiful lake with clean water, with migratory birds coming in
and people used to also fish in the lake. Now this 43 acres lake has
shrunk with garbage and debris being dumped here. It has become a sewage
pit. Now that the restoration has begun, we hope that the lake will
regain its lost beauty,” said Madhu Ashok, a resident of LB Shastri
Nagar. A walkathon is being organised by VIKAS, a resident’s group on
December 14 at the lake to speed up the process of restoration. “The
contractor has been given a one year contract, at the end of which, all
the points listed in the detailed project report must be completed. The
bunds need to be fixed, the island formation needs to be completed and a
walking track needs to be built. Once the water table is recharged,
people can once again start using the water from the lake for household
purposes,” said a VIKAS member. Ashok Gowda, BDA Engineer assured that
most of the work has already been completed. “The island work is nearly
completed, even the walkway is 90 per cent done. Most of the work that’s
remaining is related to the clearance of the encroachment, which the
Tahsildar is responsible for. By March, the rejuvenation should be more
or less done,” he said. The main aim of VIKAS is to increase awareness
among the people. Once the BDA completes its rejuvenation project, the
group has taken up the responsibility to take over the maintenance of
the lake. ABOUT VIKAS In 2006, Uthkarsh, a residents’ group
of the LB Shastri Nagar was formed, with the aim to motivate residents
and government officials to improve the quality of life in the locality.
Soon a lake team was formed to pursue the forest department and the
government, to take initiatives to save the lake. In 2011, the lake was
handed over to the BDA. A walkathon was organised on November 3, 2012,
to create some noise regarding the degradation of the lake. Attended by
over 500 people, including BDA/ BBMP official, MLA and corporator, the
walkathon led to the formation of VIKAS - which works with officials and
the government to save the lake. Restoration work by the BDA began in
Feb 2013.
|
New attendance scanners installed at civic body headquarters
Monday, 09 December 2013 12:12
administrator
The Times of India 09.12.2013 New attendance scanners installed at civic body headquarters
NAVI MUMBAI: Following repeated complaints of faulty finger scanners meant for attendance of civic staff, which have been installed at the NMMC head office in Belapur Bhawan, the civic administration has replaced them with new sophisticated and fool proof hand geometryscanners. Thus, enabling in zero error attendance system to keep a tab on latecomers.
G.V.Rao said, " For accurate attendance, the two hand geometry scanners have been installed at the civic head quarters at Belapur Bhawan building's ground floor. Initially, only two such machines have been installed on experimental basis for checking the acceptance and errors as proof of concept (POC). Once successful, they will be installed at other civic departments, which are already using the conventional method of registering the attendance of the civic staff. The new hand geometry scanners have replaced the previously installed finger scanners as there were multiple complaints by the civic staff alleging that the finger scanners were faulty and did not show perfect attendance timing claiming that they did not scan the finger properly. Since, the new scanner has been installed on December 1 till December 7, we have not received a single complaint regarding the malfunction or faulty reading shown by the new scanner."
"It was learnt that some civic staff who were habitual late comers and did not want the attendance system so that they could come to work as per their convenience, were deliberately fiddling with the machine thus damaging its sensor and later blamed that the finger scanning machine was defective. Hence, the new machine has been installed which scans all the five fingers and even if the finger print of any one finger matches with that of the person whose palm is been scanned, the machine immediately accepts the impression and registers the attendance. When single finger scanner was installed, the miscreant civic staff used to deliberately keep their finger erroneously on the machine's sensor such that it could not be scanned properly and should error, thus enabling them to claim that the scanner was faulty and did not record accurate attendance, thus blaming the attendance system. The fact cannot be denied that about 90% of the civic staff was compatible with the finger scanner for attendance, while it was the remaining 10% staff, who were affiliated to the trade unions, who had objected to the use of finger scanners for attendance by alleging that they were faulty."
He added, " The new hand geometry scanners requires the civic staff to keep their entire palm on the machine after which it scans all the five fingers and even if 10% of the finger print matches then the attendance is registered by the machine. The hand geometry scanners purchased by NMMC are from the branded US based Ingersoll Rand company and each scanner costs Rs 65,000. We opted for this brand as it has shown good results with the number of failures/ complaints been zero."
Meanwhile, when the finger scanning machines were newly installed at the NMMC HQ in December 2007, it was alleged that the late-comer civic staff and those leaving early before the duty hours, had twice deliberately fiddled with the machines resulting in its malfunction. The miscreant employees had scratched the delicate screen of the machine with a coin or a metal. As a result, the machine could not detect the thumb impression. Taking a serious not of the unpardonable mischief the then municipal commissioner Vijay Nahata has issued an inter-office circular stating that if anybody is found guilty of fiddling with the attendance finger scanning machine, the concerned person shall be prosecuted. After, the stringent notification, there has been no repetition of damaging the finger scanning machines. It took around 10 days to repair the machines. For the first time, the concerned agency namely Eviska Pvt Ltd had repaired the machines free of cost but the second time, the repairing was chargeable. Accordingly, for repairing the machines, NMMC had incurred Rs 3000 each while the new finger scanning machine costs around Rs 15k.
Civic body to temporarily shift hospital
Monday, 09 December 2013 12:09
administrator
The Times of India 09.12.2013 Civic body to temporarily shift hospital
AURANGABAD: Putting on hold its proposal of demolishing Durga Prasad hospital at Shahaganj market, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Saturday said it would first build a facility for the hospital on an adjacent land before demolishing the old structure. "Looking at the number of patients visiting the hospital, the civic body has decided to make stop gap arrangement for the hospital," municipal commissioner Harshdeep Kamble said on Saturday.
The AMC has proposed to develop a state-of-the-art hospital in place of Durga Prasad hospital under built operate and transfer (BOT) model and hence, it was looking forward to demolishing the existing structure. The civic body is also developing the Shahaganj market with a private partner under BOT model.
The Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) has been running the hospital in the building owned by the municipal corporation.
Kamble said the civic body would shift the hospital in a new building for the time being. "The hospital will be set up again in the same spot with new facilities," he said.
The residents of the area and shopkeepers in Shahaganj market had strongly objected to the AMC's drive and urged the municipal body to provide an alternative land.
They said the hospital was offering services to many below poverty line and middle-class people. Many regular patients had also urged the municipal administration to suspend the drive till an alternative arrangement is made.
Sikander Ali, executive engineer and BOT chief in the AMC, said the municipal body has already assigned a private player for building the new facility. At present, the hospital occupies 2,000 sq ft area, but under the new plan, it will get nearly 5,000 sq ft area.
|
