The Hindu        17.08.2017 

Corpn to collect data on high-rises

The Corporation is set for a detailed data collection exercise on high-rise buildings in the city that have more than four storeys.

The local body has in recent years been receiving several complaints regarding flats constructed in violation of the original building permit that it had granted.

These complaints have mostly come from customers struggling to get TC numbers and other public utility connections due to the violations committed by the real estate companies.

The decision regarding data collection was taken at a steering committee meeting held earlier this week. According to officials here, the data will enable the Corporation to crack down more effectively on violations.

“We have been constantly receiving complaints from several customers who had bought individual units in various flats in the city. The real estate companies usually get building permit citing certain number of floors and a certain parking area, but later carry out the construction violating these conditions. In such cases, TC numbers cannot be provided. But, the issue here is that, it is the customers who suffer, rather than the real estate company, as they would have got all the money in advance,” Mayor V.K. Prashanth said.

Lack of monitoring

The lack of a system to constantly monitor whether the building permit conditions were being followed in construction and at later stages also needs to be addressed, he said.

According to Town Planning Committee Standing Committee Chairman R. Satheesh Kumar, the Corporation is insisting on flats having facilities for waste management and rainwater harvesting and safety measures including proper setback, before providing occupancy certificates.

“In case of such violations, we are unable to provide TC number, because of which we cannot do building tax assessment also. One way is to regularise them with an ‘Unauthorised’ TC number, with a tax three times a high as the normal rates. We will look into all the violations during the data collection and take the necessary action after that. Though we have records of all building permits issued from here, we do not have separate data on high-rises. The data collection will be done on a zonal basis,” he said.

The Hindu        12.06.2017  

State Urban Local Bodies go online

Citizens can avail themselves all the 18 essential municipal functions through the portals

A significant development in the third anniversary of formation of Telangana State has been all the 72 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) going online and in a position to even process the complex building plans under the Development Permission Management System (DPMS) from their respective portals.

From among them, 54 of the urban bodies have even started offering services of all the 18 essential municipal functions like issuance of birth and death certificates, trade licences, tax payments, mutations, occupancy certificates, water connections and the likes.

“Earlier, except for building plan approvals, most of the services were available through the MeeSeva centres. Now, the citizen service centres opened in each municipality can handle these and we are also soon going to link up our payment gateway with the newly launched ‘T-Wallet’,” said Commissioner & Director of Municipal Administration T. K. Sreedevi.

Computer professional

For handling online services, at least one or two trained computer professionals have been posted in each of the ULBs along with personnel taken on outsourced basis for operations.

Training for municipal staff of various wings too has been taken up to familiarise them with functioning through the web.

All these online municipal services are to be further integrated into a mobile app and not only will it be convenient to the citizens for any redressal of complaints, but also these can also be monitored real time from the regional municipal directors’ offices and the head office. A central monitoring unit has been established to track the online complaints and their redressal, the Commissioner explained. Going digital while helping in tracking and prioritising files can also ensure their speedy movement, improve accountability and make the decision making process transparent, she added.

e-office system

The e-office system too put into place earlier this year helps in processing files speedily, keep tab on the number of pending files and implementation status.

Citizens too are to get message alerts on their respective applications status.

While the CDMA has already signed pacts with the SBI and the HDFC Bank for payment gateways for tax collection and fees payment, among others it has now also roped in ICICI Bank into the ambit offering more payment options to the citizens.

Capacity building

Recently, the bank had conducted a day-long training workshop for the municipal staff on aspects like bankable projects in urban infrastructure, app for property mapping for development of land registry, dashboard demonstration, e-governance and rolling out the citizen services centres in all urban centres, among others.

Besides, the bank has also provided skills training to 300 unemployed youths at its academy for courses ranging from three to nine months over the last few months, Dr. Sreedevi added.

IMPROVED CITIZEN SERVICES

Earlier, except for the building plan approvals, most of the services were available through the MeeSeva centres

Urban Local Bodies are also soon going to link up their payment gateway with the newly launched ‘T-Wallet’

For handling online services, at least one or two trained computer professionals posted in each of the ULBs

Training for municipal staff of various wings taken up to familiarise them with functioning through the web

All the online municipal services to be integrated into a mobile app and monitored from the regional municipal directors’ offices