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Delhi Jal Board task force takes on water mafia, illegal tubewells

Thursday, 09 January 2014 11:03 administrator
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The Indian Express             09.01.2014

Delhi Jal Board task force takes on water mafia, illegal tubewells

In what is being seen as the first such effort to root out water mafia, the Delhi Jal Board's (DJB) special taskforce carried out a massive operation in Sangam Vihar and Deoli village in South Delhi.

It is the task force's second recommendation in a week.

The first recommendation was made on Monday — to transfer 800 of its staff.

According to the DJB, the task force had received inputs regarding "many illegally dug tubewells on public land in the Sangam Vihar and Deoli village areas", allegedly supplying water to the neighbourhood "at an exorbitant price of Rs 700 per family per month".

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was on Sunday informed of the situation by DJB CEO Vijay Kumar, and the task force members, "gave an on-the-spot approval for the takeover of such illegal borewells involved in the extraction of ground water for their commercial interests".

DJB officials got in touch with the Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) of the South District, and decided "to carry-out a massive combing operation with the assistance of the police authorities, where a large police force was also deployed to manage the situation".

A DJB spokesperson said, "Joint team consisting of officers from DJB, DC's office and the police force cracked took over the illegally installed borewells. The electrical connections of private operators have been removed and DJB has obtained new connections from BSES to operate these tubewells. The operation in this area is likely to last two days."

A complaint has been lodged under the relevant provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

"To provide security to the new installations, the RWA/residents who are direct beneficiaries, have been asked to keep a vigil at these locations to thwart attempts to damage government property. DJB has temporarily posted security guards at these installations to secure them," a Delhi Jal Board statement said.

The DJB task force was formed last week under Additional CEO of Delhi Jal Board, Nandini Paliwal, together with four superintending engineers, one executive engineer and one deputy director (enforcement) as members.

The force was mandated to find out the discrepancies being caused in DJB's water distribution services by the water mafia.

 

GVMC moots CLCs to provide citizen services at doorstep

Thursday, 09 January 2014 07:33 administrator
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The Times of India                09.01.2014 

GVMC moots CLCs to provide citizen services at doorstep

VISAKHAPATNAM: Tired of waiting for that plumber or electrician that you called last week, to turn up at your doorstep? Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GMVC) could bring your wait to an end soon, if its plans to set up City Livelihood Centres (CLC), on the lines of those in Pune, with financial assistance from the Centre, to bridge the gap between citizen services and supply, materialise.

If the CLC concept takes off, it will benefit thousands of skilled workers and lakhs of citizens and will see GVMC emerge as an employment exchange of sorts, showing skilled vocational workers the available employment opportunities and directing the suitable worker to the doorstep of the households to attend to complaints such as repairs of fans, televisions, air conditioners, refrigerators, furniture, housekeeping, security, carpentry, gardening, construction, plumbing, electrical works, healthcare support and even for helpers required for payment of electricity and phone bills.

GVMC will decide the service charges and will collect nearly 5-10% of the service charges from the skilled workers as fee for the maintenance of the CLCs. To ensure citizen safety, GVMC will also provide the database of vocational services providers to the city police so that they can be tracked down in case of any untoward incident.

As per the guidelines issued by Centre's National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) a few months ago in 2013, GVMC is the first civic body in the state to be ready to establish CLCs in the city to provide services. CLCs are nothing but call centres where GVMC can provide helpline numbers of service providers on demand from citizens. GVMC will collect details of those providing vocational services in the city and put together a computerized database, said D Panduranga Rao, project director, Urban Community Development Centre, GVMC.

As per NULM guidelines, it is mandatory to put up one CLC in each town or city with a population ranging from one to three lakh and for big cities like Visakhapatnam, where the population is over 10 lakh, a maximum of eight CLCs will have to be set up, he added.

"As per the NULM norms, we have proposed eight CLCs in the GVMC limits, including the merged Anakapalle and Bheemili towns and we will be the first to implement it in the state. As per the details of the available buildings furnished by the eight zonal commissioners, we have preliminarily identified buildings for establishment of the proposed CLCs. The project report has been sent to the Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) at Hyderabad, which will forward it to the Centre for allocation of funds," Panduranga Rao told TOI.

As many as 7,54,140 urban poor (households) in the city will be able to avail services of the eight GVMC CLCs and a total of 3,650 skilled works will be benefitted through self-employment opportunities, as per GVMC's project report.

Initially, one or two persons may be recruited to run each CLC, which will be equipped with the requisite furniture like chairs, tables, computers, phone, racks and the like. "Nearly Rs 15 lakh is required to set up a full-fledged CLC, where GVMC's contribution will be around Rs 5 lakh. The Centre will provide the remaining amount on an installment basis to the GVMC. We are hoping to start work on full steam on CLCs by next month," Rao added.

 

Nashik Municipal Corporation to reissue tenders for Dadasaheb Phalke memorial

Thursday, 09 January 2014 07:18 administrator
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The Times of India                09.01.2014 

Nashik Municipal Corporation to reissue tenders for Dadasaheb Phalke memorial

NASHIK: The lack of response from agencies to take up maintenance of the Dadasaheb Phalke memorial has prompted the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) to re-issue the tenders.

The civic body had floated tenders in December inviting private agencies to manage the memorial at the foothills of Pandavleni, eight kilometres from the city. But there were no takers. The NMC has once again invited tenders on Wednesday.

The private agency has to take care of the total maintenance and repair of the memorial, the garden and Buddha Vihar. The daily cleanliness will be done and the security will also be provided by the agency.

"We did not get a single tender for the maintenance and cleaning of the memorial and the gardens. We, therefore, had to re-invite tenders," said an NMC official. "The agency will have to maintain and clean the memorial and the Buddha Vihar and should also provide security. It will have to do all these by selling the entry tickets and parking fees. It will also have to pay some royalty to the NMC," said an NMC official.

The memorial on a sprawling lush green 29-acre land was inaugurated on November 30, 2001 in the memory of the Father of Indian Cinema Dadasaheb Phalke. But gradually the condition of the memorial began deteriorating and the number of visitors also reduced.

The NMC took the decision to hand over the maintenance to a private agency due to lack of manpower, which they felt was responsible for the poor maintenance.

"The memorial is in shambles because of lack of manpower. There are 48 employees to maintain the garden, 20 security people and five employees of the NMC," said an employee at the memorial said. "They are not sufficient," he said.

 
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