Seminar on disaster management held
Thursday, 04 September 2014 10:11
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The Hindu 04.09.2014
Seminar on disaster management heldThe capital city is the only one in the State to be
chosen among eight cities in the country to benefit from the Climate
Risk Management Project in Urban Areas through Disaster Preparedness and
Mitigation project, being jointly implemented by the Union government
and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The
State's nodal agency, the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority,
decided to take it one step further by organising a day-long awareness
seminar for municipalities across Kerala on the best practices and tools
they need to be equipped with. Deputy Mayor G.
Happykumar inaugurated the seminar held here on Wednesday. Over 50
participants representing municipalities attended the workshop, which
was moderated by G. Padmanabhan, head of UNDP’s India disaster
management unit. National Programme Coordinator of the Climate Risk
Management Project Aabha Mishra was also present. The
Disaster Management Cell of the capital was set up at the Corporation
in 2010 and since then one of the key priorities has been to integrate
climate risk reduction measures with development activities. This year,
the cell has already organised training programmes for trade union
workers in a bid to ‘enhance community capacities to manage climate risk
in urban areas,’ officials said. The objective of
the seminar was to share the best practices in disaster mitigation
through case studies which were discussed through the day. The concept of training local people to be the ‘first responders,’ in particular, was discussed. The objective was to share the best practices in disaster mitigation through case studies.
Govt to create Patna Metro Development Authority
Wednesday, 27 August 2014 11:12
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The Times of India 27.08.2014 Govt to create Patna Metro Development Authority PATNA:
The state government has decided to create Patna Metropolitan
Development Authority (PMDA) to plan comprehensive development of the
state capital besides Fatuha, Phulwarisharif and Danapur areas. The
cabinet on Tuesday approved the urban development and housing department
(UDHD) proposal in this regard. UDHD secretary will be chairman of the
10-member PMDA. Following the severe waterlogging problem in
Patna last week, chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi had criticized the
Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) functioning and asked the chief
secretary to evolve a new mechanism. The PMDA would be
empowered to undertake comprehensive development plan and survey work of
the proposed Patna metropolitan area, including the infrastructure
development for water supply, drainage and sewerage. Briefing
media after the cabinet meeting, principal secretary, department of
cabinet coordination, Brajesh Mehrotra said besides Patna DM, chief town
planner, Patna municipal commissioner, executive officers of Danapur,
Khagaul and Phulwarisharif civic bodies, two government experts would
also be the members of the authority. The chief executive officer of
PMDA would be the member secretary of the authority. Representatives of
the state road construction department and public health and engineering
department would also be included in the committee. The
cabinet also gave its nod for signing the memorandum of agreement with
the Centre for setting up one model rural health research unit, six
multidisciplinary research units, besides five viral research and
diagnostic labs in the state. It also approved Rs 586 crore for
the construction of a medical and nursing college at Indira Gandhi
Institute of Medical Sciences, Sheikhpura, Patna. Similarly a sum of Rs
100 crore has been sanctioned for the expansion and renovation of
Darbhanga Medical College Hospital. The cabinet also cleared
the creation of 108 posts for ECG technicians for attending to heart
patients at district level government hospitals. The government has
increased the existing amount for the treatment of hip and knee
replacement, plastic surgery and acid burn case patients under the CM
Medical Relief fund. Now, the patients will get Rs 50,000 each for hip
and knee replacement as against the existing amount of Rs 20,000.
Similarly, for plastic surgery and acid burn cases, the limit has been
extended from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The government has also accorded state festival status to Pritipaksh mela at Gaya and Sonepur cattle fair.
For the proper implementation of the Land Acquisition Act, the cabinet
approved the proposal of framing Bihar Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation,
Resettlement Transparency Rights Rules 2014. It will include
rehabilitation and resettlement scheme, compensation related issues,
preliminary notification and social impact assessment. The rules would
be uploaded on the website for seeking public opinion before finalizing
it. Under the Bihar Public Service Rights Act 2011, cabinet
okayed the proposal to reduce the period from 60 days to 30 days for
delivering ration cards to people. For the development of horticulture
in the state, the cabinet approved Rs 178.94 crore to the Bihar
horticulture development society. It cleared Rs 40 crore for the timely
distribution of the amount among the flood victims of 2014.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 August 2014 11:16
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VMC seeks more time to develop Gunadala layout
Tuesday, 26 August 2014 05:47
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The Hindu 26.08.2014 VMC seeks more time to develop Gunadala layout
Municipal employees may have to wait for some more time
to see the layout for their housing colony at Gunadala in proper shape.
The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is learnt to have sought
“some more time” to fulfil its promise made to the Lokayukta which would
hear the case on Wednesday (August 27). The
Corporation has been pleading that it needs more time to prepare the
layout, saying that it is facing paucity of funds. As soon as the
government released the dues, developmental works would be taken up, the
VMC officials told Lokayukta last year. They, however, could not keep
the promise. The VMC collected Rs. 9.8 crore from its
employees as development charges in 2009. But, the funds were diverted
to other purposes. Now, not more than Rs. 17 lakh were available under
this head, sources say. The VMC may have to cough up more than Rs. 11
crore to develop the layout if the present Standard Schedule of Rates
(SSR) are to be considered. The 55-acre layout has been mired in controversy ever since the proposal was conceived nearly two decades ago. The
main contention of the employees is that the VMC has diverted the
developmental charges for some other purpose; the plots are not
registered in their names. They also alleged that the names of
ineligible persons had crept into the list. The
employees say that the VMC has been deliberately dilly-dallying on the
matter for nearly 18 years. Some employees even breathed their last even
before they could realize the dream of building their own house, say
Ranganayakulu, employees union leader.
Councilors demands separation of engineering and town planning sections
Friday, 21 March 2014 09:10
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The Times of India 21.03.2014
Councilors demands separation of engineering and town planning sections KOZHIKODE:
Councillors in the Kozhikode city corporation have demanded the
formation of separate engineering and town planning sections to avoid
delay in the execution of ward-level public works. The
councillors have alleged that the merger of the two sections in 2005 had
delayed execution of public works comprising construction and repair of
roads in the ward, construction of drainages and covering open slabs
and road surface improvements works. Councillor Zachariah P
Hussein said that they need to wait for months to prepare the estimate
and supervision as the works of town planning and engineering section
being done by the same overseer. "The delay in getting
permission and preparing project estimate created problems to the
councillors," he said. Councillor K Sathyanathan said that though he has
bought the issue to the attention of the mayor through a calling
attention motion, a decision in this regard is yet to be made.
"The councillors have been forced to run behind the overseers in the
corporation to prepare estimate and to carry out field visit as they
also need to accord permission to building plans after the site visit.
Only the separation of two departments will put an end to the existing
problem," he said. Meanwhile, mayor MK Premajam said that it
was merged during the tenure of the previous government. "Staff shortage
is the main constrain for the separation of the merged sections. At
present there is a delay in carrying out the ward-level works as the
same staff needs to simultaneously carry out the works of the town
planning and engineering section," said the mayor.
Last Updated on Friday, 21 March 2014 12:18
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