The Hindu        27.06.2011

White Paper on BBMP finances sought

Staff Reporter

Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, he said that if the Government had released Rs. 2,800 crore State grants, the civic body's finances would have been in a healthier condition.

The grant of Rs. 600 crore in 2008-09, Rs. 900 crore in 2009-10 and Rs. 1,300 crore in 2010-11 for the civic body from the State Government was yet to come, he said.

“The BJP presented a gargantuan budget for Rs. 8,848 crore for 2010-11 fiscal. However, no work has been taken up. Where did the money go, since most works are going to be mentioned in the 2011-12 budget as spill-over work?” he asked.

Hundi system

Seeking action against the BBMP's Chief Accounts Officer, Mr. Reddy said that due to his “negligence”, the civic body had to pay Rs. 4.06 crore of the tax payers' money as interest to banks for borrowings made under the Hundi system.

Under the system introduced three years ago, contractors could produce bills at some banks with which the BBMP had entered into a memorandum of understanding for payment, when the BBMP cannot clear them due to fund paucity.

Banks' role

The banks release the amount and retain 6.5 per cent of the total bill and the BBMP has to pay the bank within six months. “However, due to the Chief Accounts Officer's ‘negligence', the BBMP had to pay Rs. 4.06 crore additionally as interest. Bills up to July 2010 for various works have been cleared under the system.

“The tax payers have the right to know whether the Standing Committees or the BBMP Council had permitted clearing contractors' bills through this system,” Mr. Reddy said.

The Hindu       03.05.2011

Disciplinary action against 5 GHMC officials

Five GHMC officials, including two Deputy Municipal Commissioners, an Assistant City Planner and two Section Officers are in the dock in the Narayanaguda building collapse case.

Thirteen persons were killed and six persons were injured when a three-storied building was being constructed after demolishing an old structure in February last year. Not only was the construction being done without taking permission, the engineering officials too later certified that the work quality was also bad.

The government has now decided to initiate disciplinary proceedings against DCs C.N. Raghu Prasad and Y. Sreekanth, SOs Mir Farooq Ali and E. Surender Reddy and ACP S. Sadanandam. The last three have been suspended by the GHMC soon after the incident. The five have been given 10 days' time to give their explanations in writing.

The building was lying adjacent to a school and the collapse sent the entire city into a tizzy as initially it was thought that some of the children were trapped in the rubble. Panic-stricken parents rushed to the site and their happiness knew no bounds when it was realised that all the schoolchildren were safe. The owner was trying to build the house in a 200-square yard plot and ironically, he was eligible to get official permission for constructing ground plus two floors if he had only applied. He had volunteered to give away 27 sq.yards for road widening during construction of the Narayanaguda flyover in the mid 90s and hence was eligible for a ground-plus-two structure.

Failure of supervision

Interestingly, a high-level team of senior officials headed by GHMC Commissioner Sameer Sharma which probed the incident had pointed out to failure of supervision and recommended the government to institute a third-party supervision of construction activity. It also suggested the architect concerned to give a status report whenever each floor is raised.

Other members of the panel were the then Hyderabad Collector Naveen Mittal, Additional Commissioner K. Dhananjaya Reddy, GHMC Chief Engineer R. Dhan Singh and Chief Engineer (Buildings) E. Babu Raj.

There was also a proposal to train rescue teams in disaster management with appropriate tools to cut cement slabs and thermal imaging cameras at the zonal level. But, little has been done on these fronts.