PUNE: The General Body (GB) of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Wednesday witnessed a heated debate over the election code of conduct and the budget works.

For the second consecutive year, the PMC's annual civic budget execution is likely to remain incomplete with the election code of conduct has adding to the hurdles in budget execution.

The civic administration stated that as per the orders by the district election officer the tender process for development works have to be halted and no new decisions could be taken during the election code of conduct.

All party corporators objected to the order and asked the civic administration to communicate with the election officer on the matter.

Additional municipal commissioner Naresh Zurmure admitted that the budget execution was slow and that the administration has already written to the district election officer about the same. "However, the election officer has asked to strictly follow the election code of conduct and hence no meetings could be held and decisions taken," said Zurmure.

After approving the highest-ever annual budget of Rs 3,027.41 crore for 2009-10, the PMC has been able to implement only 60 per cent of the budget works till date, as the civic administration could achieve revenue collection of only Rs 1,951.54 crore against the total target.

"This year not even 60 per cent budget will be executed considering the speed with which the civic administration is working," said corporator Ujwal Keskar.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has already blamed the civic administration for the delay in executing the budget and demanded that the municipal commissioner take steps to make the administration work. The party had said it would launch a mass agitation against the administration.

The Election Commission of India on Monday announced the biennial/by-elections to the Maharashtra Legislative Council. The schedule for Pune is polling on November 27 and counting on November 30.

With the announcement, the model Code of Conduct for political parties and candidates have come into immediate effect. It has imposed a restriction on state and central ministers from making any official visits to any district going for elections. No district officials, dealing with election-related work, shall be called by any minister to attend any meeting, even to a district not going for the elections.

No policy announcement or programme shall be initiated by the government departments related to the constituents of the election.

The Hindu  20.10.2010

BDA ties up with Corporation Bank

Staff Reporter

SEALING A DEAL:BDA Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena and Managing Director of Corporation Bank Ramnath Pradeep exchanging files after signing an MoU in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Bangalore: The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Corporation Bank on Tuesday for extension of various banking services, including extension of credit limits to BDA for its project to allot 25,000 houses and sites to people from the economically weaker sections.

According to the MoU, the bank will be one of the preferred financiers for all development activities taken up by the BDA. Besides, the Bank will sanction loans to applicants for purchase of sites/houses from BDA and also to those who are displaced due to land acquisition by the authority.

The MoU was signed by the Bank's Chief General Manager C.K. Pinto and BDA's Finance Member R. Maheshwarappa in the presence of BDA Chairperson Vatsala Vatsa, Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena, and Chairman and Managing Director of Corporation Bank Ramnath Pradeep.

Employees too

The bank will also meet various retail loan requirements of BDA employees as per their eligibility. Suitable IT solutions would be developed to integrate with BDA's server for all financial activities such as online collection of application fee, property tax and rents and all other payments apart from e-auction. Kiosks will be set up at BDA to facilitate the banking services.

Mr. Meena told reporters that BDA had not yet availed itself of any loans from the bank.

“But, if required, we will take financial assistance from the bank for our future projects. The MoU will create a synergy between the two organisations and will come into effect shortly,” he said.