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E-Governance

Now, e-tendering in MC for works below Rs 10 lakh

Saturday, 13 April 2013 07:14 administrator
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The Indian Express                     13.04.2013

Now, e-tendering in MC for works below Rs 10 lakh

The Municipal Corporation has adopted the process of e-tendering for works valuing Rs 10 lakh or less. Till now the process was being adopted by the civic body for works that valued more than Rs 10 lakh. The system will bring more transparency in the allotment of tenders.

The decision to adopt e-tendering was taken by the MC in a resolution dated July 29, 1997. The notification was issued by the office of the Finance Secretary in 2010. While, MC had adopted e-tendering for works above Rs 10 lakh, the same was not being done for those below this amount.

Deputy Mayor Satish Kainth wrote a letter to the Mayor Raj Bala Malik demanding that the process of e-tendering be adopted.

Following the decision, Kainth said the process will facilitate in bringing transparency into the system. "With e-tendering in place, the allotment of tenders will be done in a fair manner," he said.

 

Now, apply online for water connection

Wednesday, 10 April 2013 04:52 administrator
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The Hindu                       10.04.2013

Now, apply online for water connection

The Kerala Water Authority, in a bid to keep middlemen and plumbers at bay, is planning to accept new water connection applications online.

The proposal, to be placed before the KWA board shortly, is likely to include measures for consumers making necessary payments either online or at local KWA offices. The local offices will be equipped to provide application forms. As of now, according to a top KWA official, a prospective customer would have to pay at least Rs.10,000 for a domestic connection when the actual fee would not be more than Rs.3,000.

The ‘rates’ are now fixed as per the whims and fancies of plumbers and a few lower- rung KWA officials. And the rates include their ‘personal fee’ as well.

The KWA top brass has found out that there are around 400 new connections every year in the State capital alone, and these are not ‘traceable’ after the connection process. “Water is going to those connections, but there are no payments,” an official said, adding the new system would look at curbing such illegal connections and identifying those fleecing the consumer. At the same time, efforts would be made to increase the number of connections.

According to Ashok Kumar Singh, Managing Director, KWA, around Rs.400 crore is being pumped into rural water schemes every year, but the number of new connections being given is proportionally far less. As of now, less than 14 per cent of the 41-lakh-strong rural population in the State have access to piped drinking water.

The aim was to give 2.85 lakh rural connections and 1.5 lakh urban connections a year to take the access to 50 per cent from the present 14 per cent in the next five years.

The move, along with efforts to streamline the water charge collection system, is expected to help in generation of revenue as well for the utility.

 

PCMC standing panel’s work to go paperless

Monday, 08 April 2013 09:41 administrator
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The Indian Express                      08.04.2013

PCMC standing panel’s work to go paperless

Functioning of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation's standing committee is all set to go paperless by this week or next week. An order to this effect has been issued by Municipal Commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi.

With this, the PCMC becomes the first civic body in the state to adopt computerised system to facilitate standing committee work.

"The standing committee work will become fully computerised by this week or next week. The paperless work will ensure real-time monitoring of files and reduce unnecessary costs," said Pardeshi.

Pardeshi's top priority this year was to adopt paperless system. He had declared it as his New Year resolution when he announced a 10-point agenda to be implemented throughout the year.

Civic officials said Pardeshi hastened the computerised system for standing committee functioning as it sat on hundreds of files for months. "Despite civic chief's request to clear the backlog, the standing committee sat on files for months. Pardeshi took serious note of this and decided to implement the computerised system in a bid to ensure real-time monitoring of files," said officials.

Welcoming the move, former corporator Babu Nair said that the step will ensure transparent functioning of the committee that has earned the notoriety of being a "commission committee."

Last week, Shiv Sena corporator Asha Shendge had questioned the way standing committee framed its agenda. "It was shocking to note committee's agenda which lacked clarity. I had exposed it during the panel meeting and had also lodged a complaint with the civic chief, " said Shendge.

 
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