The Hindu             30.01.2014

Retired gardeners to maintain parks

Staff Reporter

BBMP to hire them on trial basis; 484 posts vacant in Horticulture Department

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will hire retired gardeners to maintain parks in the South zone on a trial basis, said Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan.

Yediyur councillor N.R. Ramesh said of the 1,058 parks, 771 are maintained by horticulture contractors. Though the BBMP spends nearly Rs. 15 crore annually, parks are not maintained by the contractors, he alleged. “If the BBMP hired retired gardeners, at least our parks will be well maintained. Of the sanctioned posts of 987, as many as 484 posts are vacant in the Horticulture Department,” he claimed.

Suspended

Nagapura councillor S. Harish said while the Commissioner had directed officials to float tenders for advertisement hoardings, an official had permitted a private agency to put up hoardings in Ramamurthinagar and Horamavu. Demanding the councillor’s suspension, Mr. Harish said this reflected BBMP’s administrative failure. While Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana wanted to issue a show-cause notice to the official, the Congress councillors stormed the well and demanded that the official be suspended. Mr. Laksminarayan then said the official would be suspended.

Hoarding

Objecting to the hoardings put up outside the BBMP’s head office, Opposition Leader B.N. Manjunath Reddy charged Yediyur councillor N.R. Ramesh of “politics” as the hoardings on the unveiling of thespian actor Rajkumar’s statue had photos of BJP leaders. “Rajkumar did not belong to any party. The hoardings should be removed immediately,” he said.

Earlier, Ruling Party Leader Ashwath Narayan Gowda suggested that all civic agencies — BWSSB, Bescom, BDA, KIADB and others — work with the BBMP for the city’s betterment. Mr. Reddy said Bescom was charging commercial rates even for connections in BBMP’s schools, colleges and crematoria. He urged Mr. Lakshminarayan to raise the issue with Bescom authorities.

The Hindu             30.01.2014

MCC nod enough for houses on ‘single sites’

The Urban Development Department on Wednesday approved the proposal of the Mangalore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to allow those with less than 10 cents of land within city corporation limits to construct a house without the prior approval from the authority.

Under the current rules, the land owner had first to approach MUDA, which cross checks with the Zonal Regulation, and upon approval had to approach the Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) in order to build a house on the land. With Wednesday’s approval, owners need to approach only the MCC, thereby saving time and effort, said MUDA Commissioner Mohammad Nazeer.

“We had a meeting with the Department officials on Tuesday, and they had told us the order would be sent immediately. In the entire state, only Mangalore has such a provision,” Mr. Nazeer told The Hindu .

On November 8, a resolution on this regard was sent to the State government after a MUDA board meeting, wherein Minister of State for Fisheries and Youth Affairs K. Abhaychandra Jain said the process of single site approval from MUDA was causing a lot of problems in the district where marginal landholdings were common. This relaxation does not apply to those renovating houses.

Hanumanth Kamath, president of the Nagarika Hitarakshana Vedike, believed that the decision could save on at least “one month’s time” that the file spends in the MUDA office as well as high penalty charges if the land had been found to have been divided.