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General Administration

No more deepening of borewells beyond a point: Mayor

Saturday, 01 February 2014 06:12 administrator
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The Hindu              01.02.2014

No more deepening of borewells beyond a point: Mayor

Mayor P. Karthiyayini making a point at the meeting of Corporation Council in Vellore on Friday. Janaki, Commissioner, is in the picture.— Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy
Mayor P. Karthiyayini making a point at the meeting of Corporation Council in Vellore on Friday. Janaki, Commissioner, is in the picture.— Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy

Even as the severe water scarcity which is gripping different parts of Vellore dominated the proceedings of the monthly ordinary meeting of the Vellore Corporation Council here on Friday, Vellore Mayor P. Karthiyayini indicated that the Corporation had decided against the practice of drilling new public borewells or deepening existing borewells beyond the depth at which water is available.

The Mayor made the statement in response to the demand from various councillors for deepening borewells wherever the groundwater table had depleted. She said that the drilling of new borewells or deepening of existing borewells beyond the depth at which water is available would lead to the depletion of groundwater in that area as well as in the vicinity, leading to greater water scarcity. Therefore, wherever the Corporation’s borewells have gone dry, the Corporation has decided to construct sumps or install high density poly-ethylene (HDPE) tanks and fill them with water transported through the Corporation’s water tankers.

S. Raja (DMK), 38th ward member objected to the proposal of linking the Ponnai scheme with the Allapuram-Thorappadi Combined Drinking Water Scheme under which water is supplied to the added areas of Allapuram and Thorappadi (erstwhile town panchayats), since Vellore is reeling under water scarcity.

Janaki, Commissioner of the Corporation said that it was not proper on the part of councillors to object to the linking of the Ponnai scheme to the pipelines supplying water to Allapuram and Thorappadi since these two erstwhile town panchayats have been annexed with Vellore Corporation and they too were reeling under water scarcity. Vellore Corporation is dependent on water supplied from the head works in Eraivankadu, a village which is outside the jurisdiction of Vellore Corporation. Vellore would not get water if the people of Eraivankadu object to the supply of water from their village to Vellore, she said.

K. Sooryachari (AIADMK), 41st ward member, said that though the Mayor instructed the various zonal committees to supply water through tractors, so far, the supply has not been effected. Besides, tenders have not been floated for works with estimates of up to Rs. 5 lakh, which the zonal committees were empowered to undertake. These works should be expedited, he said.

M. Usha Nandini (AIADMK), 54th ward member, said that water was being supplied only once in 15 days in Kaspa area. K. Sukumar (AIADMK), 49th ward member, said that there were three open wells and three borewells having water yield in the Thorappadi lake, but water was not being pumped regularly from these sources since only one operator was available for Thorappadi. Baskaran, Corporation Engineer said that an additional operator has been posted in Thorappadi.

Mr. Sukumar said that there were several areas in his ward which did not have pipelines connected to the water supply scheme. Since the borewells in the houses have dried up, the residents were suffering from severe water scarcity. S. Vijayalakshmi (DMK), 12th ward member, said that it is more than 15 days since water was supplied to her ward. She wanted the ‘veli kathan’ trees in the vacant sites of the Corporation in East Gandhinagar to be removed in order to conserve the groundwater.

The Mayor said that the work on the Cauvery Water Supply Scheme under which water is to be transported from Cauvery River near Mettur to Vellore district is making rapid progress, and that the scheme was likely to be completed in another six months.

Till then, the existing water supply would be streamlined, she said.

 

Corporation launches intensive tax collection drive

Saturday, 01 February 2014 06:03 administrator
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The Hindu              01.02.2014

Corporation launches intensive tax collection drive

Special Correspondent

The Tiruchirapalli City Corporation has launched an intensive tax collection drive which will continue till February end.

As per the Tiruchi Corporation Act, the residents should pay the property tax for every six months and it should be submitted within 15 days of the beginning of the half year period. The water tax should be paid once in three months, corporation commissioner V.P. Thandapani said on Friday.

Residents can pay the property tax, water tax, underground drainage service charge, and professional tax pending for the first and second half of 2013-14 at the service centres functioning in the corporation zonal offices at the Golden Rock, K. Abishekapuram, Srirangam, and Ariyamangalam, and the tax collection centres at the ward offices at Ariyamangalam , Thanjavur Road, Viragupettai water tank, Subramaniapuram ward office, Melakalkandarkottai , K.K. Nagar , Kallatheru ward office, Nandhikoil , Devar hall, and Tiruverumbur ward office. All these centres would function from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on all working days and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays till February 28, Mr. Thandapani said in a release.

 

Tiruchi corporation revises water tariff

Friday, 31 January 2014 04:35 administrator
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The Hindu              31.01.2014

Tiruchi corporation revises water tariff

Residents of the city will have to shell out more towards water charges from April as the Tiruchirpalli City Corporation Council on Thursday revised the rates across the board for all categories of consumers.

The increase, to come into effect from April 1, will be the steepest for domestic consumers as they will have to shell out Rs. 160 a month towards water charges, 60 per cent more than the existing rate.

Deposit rates and the monthly charges for non-domestic and industrial connections have been increased.

Although the council approved a resolution in April last year providing for increasing the water charges with effect from August 1, 2013, the decision was not implemented as the government had not accepted it, officials said. The council had then fixed the water charge for domestic connections at Rs. 125 a month although the official resolution had proposed the doubling of the levy to Rs. 200 a month.

The official resolution, approved at an urgent meeting of the council chaired by Mayor A. Jaya on Thursday, justified the increase on the grounds that the civic body has to repay loans taken for the Rs. 221.42 crore new drinking water augmentation scheme.

It pointed out that the civic body in 2008 approved a resolution providing for increasing the charges in stages in the wake of the implementation of the new scheme and the civic body’s financial commitment to it.

As councillors of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam were suspended from the meeting, it was left to members of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, the Congress and Independent MLA M. Venkataraj to raise a feeble objection to the move.

Mr. Venkataraj and the other party members contended that the increase would put a heavy burden on residents and demanded a reduction as the new water scheme was yet to be commissioned.

City Engineer R. Chandran said the civic body had already started supplying water from the new scheme to some parts of the city and the scheme would be fully commissioned shortly.

V.P. Thandapani, Corporation Commissioner, said the corporation was only maintaining “status quo” in the light of the resolution approved by the council in 2008 and revised rates would come into effect only after the new scheme was commissioned.

 
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