The Hindu 03.11.2010
Resident resents BMC attitude on civic problem
Staff Reporter
BHUBANESWAR: A packet reportedly received by the Bhubaneswar
Municipal Corporation (BMC) must have made the authorities see red on
Tuesday, but by presenting this to the BMC Commissioner, a resident of
capital city was venting his anger over the ‘partisan’ attitude of the
authorities.
The packet contained photographs showing construction material
stacked on a major thoroughfare in front of official residences of BMC
Commissioner Vishal Dev and his neighbour, a bureaucrat. “By sending
photographs that showed the State-of-the-affairs around the residence of
the BMC Commissioner, I did not want to offend anybody, but it was an
attempt to draw the attention to the problem,” said Bijay Kumar Mishra, a
resident of Nayapalli.
Why did Mr. Mishra do it? Earlier he was slapped a show cause notice
for stacking construction material on road in front of his house and
that according to BMC was causing inconvenience to others.
Livid over slapping of notices, he submitted a grievance letter along
with photographs. “I know I am at fault. Had I been alerted, I could
have taken care of the construction material. But I was slapped a notice
that reached me after a week of its generation,” he said.
The Nayapalli resident alleged that, “the BMC was perhaps selectively
targeting people. Construction material and debris continue to remain
on roads in front of houses of influential persons for months, but BMC
does not act in those cases. Even in government’s developmental
projects, mountains of construction material block movement of people,
yet the corporation remain silent on that account.”
No information
As a resident was trying to give a clear picture to the BMC
Commissioner on enforcement of law, the State Information Commissioner
asked the official to appear in person for failing to provide complete
information about volume of garbage generated in the corporation limit
between 2001 and 2008.
For past two years, one Bijay Kumar Panda had been running from one
section to another in BMC office for obtaining information about volume
of garbage generated from 2001 to 2008, number of sanitation workers
engaged to clear the garbage and if the corporation had entered into any
understanding with private players to keep the city clean.
To this query, the BMC initially replied that the information seeker
should approach different sections in the corporation. Subsequently, Mr.
Panda made the first appeal at Deputy Commissioner of BMC.
Moreover, the information seeker was not supplied information even
though he deposited Rs. 750 with Executive Engineer (Division-II).
When Mr. Panda approached State Information Commission, it waived the
money and asked the BMC Commissioner to inquire into the matter and
submit the report as to why information was not being supplied smoothly.
But again the BMC Commissioner failed to meet the deadline.
Hearing the matter on Tuesday, Information Commissioner Jagadananda
asked the BMC Commissioner to appear in person along with inquiry report
on December 24.
