Urban News

The Deccan Herald  10.12.2010

Tech to check late comers in BBMP offices

Bangalore, December 9, DHNS:

In a bid to improve attendance of staff in its offices, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is contemplating to install biometeric recognition systems across all the eight Palike zonal headquarters.

During recent raids on the East Zone headquarters and the Dasarhalli zonal office, members of the Standing Committee on Personnel and Administrative Reforms found that many officers came late.

According to the Committee Chairman Lakshmikanth Reddy, in Mayo Hall on December 2, only 10 percent of employees had signed the attendance register till 10.30 am. By 11.30 am, only 30 percent attendance was recorded.

Though 358 people work at Mayo Hall office, only 96 people had come to work that morning.

Committee members said most of the staff missing during morning hours at the Mayo Hall office were Group ‘C’ and ‘D’ employees, mainly clerks and lower rung officers.

At the Dasarahalli zone head office on December 8, only four percent attendance was recorded on time. Only 38 of the 68 staff signed in the register till 11.45 pm with the rest missing the day’s work.

“In fact, we saw four people had signed for the next day on December 8 itself,” said Reddy. The committee has now recommended notices be issued to all the officials who arrived late and missed day’s work.

The Committee also stated that gross irregularities were noticed even in the use of  Prahari vehicles, which were to be used for emergency purposes.

The Committee has approved the recruitment of 350 gardeners for the Horticulture Department.

The Deccan Herald  08.12.2010

Online building approvals for smaller sites deferred

Sandeep Moudgal, Bangalore, December 8, DHNS:

With resistance from within and outside, the online Building Plan Approval proposal of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for sites measuring up to 40 x 60 sq feet has been deferred till the end of January 2011.

According to Palike sources, a letter has been dispatched from the Mayor’s office to BBMP Commissioner Siddaiah for deferring the online plan approval to ensure that people are ‘familiarised’ with the system. However, for approval of plans for sites measuring over 40 x 60 sq ft, property owners have been directed sternly to file their applications for online approval from the Palike.

Even the plans of the above mentioned properties have to be approved online after the expiry of the January grace period, but sources talk about possible deferment of the online approval of building plans for the 30 x 40 and 40 x 60 sq feet sites till March end, coinciding with the end of tenure for Mayor S K Nataraj.

The online building approval proposal conceived earlier this year, has been considered ‘mandatory’ by the Centre to release grants under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) scheme.

Accordingly, in September this year, it was stated that the Palike building approval plan will go online for ensuring transparency in the system.

Opposition within

However, as soon as the proposal was made, the plan approvals going online was resisted by the Palike officials and from outside by touts.

The Palike Town Planning Department in November stated that after much deliberation, the system was given the green signal by the Palike commissioner. “We finally received the direction from the commissioner for the online building plan approval earlier last month,” informed a Palike official.

The Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance, which received the proposal, returned it to the Town Planning Department for ensuring that “able hands” were recruited to operate the system across the eight zones of the BBMP.

“The personnel deputed to Palike from the IT Department lack the capacity to operate Autocad. We need people with experience to handle the system across all the zones. But none have arrived,” said a Standing Committee member.

135 applications

It is learnt that the Town Planning Department has already uploaded on their system nearly 70 to 80 per cent of the property details related to their plan approval. But none have been approved. Since October 1, the BBMP till date has received 135 applications for building plan approval.