The Hindu               15.02.2014

GHMC to link all zones, circle offices

Special Correspondent

All the zonal and circle offices of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) which are scattered across the city and suburbs in different locations would soon be networked with video conferencing facility.

GHMC Commissioner Somesh Kumar has taken a decision on linking all the five zonal and 18 circle level functioning with the head office to ensure access and work has been initiated to set up the required infrastructure.

“Our functioning at 18 different locations will be linked and the right model to suit our requirements are being finalised,” he said. When in place, it will help the civic body in having a quick interaction between officers operating in different zones and circles but saves travel time.

“Our personnel working in Patancheru or Gachibowli travel a couple of hours to reach here and spend the same time to return,” he said.

Bio-metric

The municipal corporation has also decided to introduce biometric attendance system at all its offices covering the entire staff, regular employees and also the outsourced workers. “We want to streamline the working hours and staff movement to ensure more productive output for citizens,” he said.

New number

GHMC would soon be launching a new phone number, 21111111, for citizens to contact the civic body call centre to log in their complaints and grievances. It would be in addition to the present call centre number -155304.

The Hindu               15.02.2014

‘Waste management needed, not more roads’

Staff Reporter

Though several projects aimed at developing the city’s infrastructure have been announced, the share of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in the budget is meagre, noted Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana.

He told The Hindu that the BBMP had been counting on the State government to bail out the civic body from financial crisis. “We had sought Rs. 5,000 crore from the government. Projects worth Rs. 2,160 crore have been announced for the BBMP, but the allocation is only Rs. 1,527 crore,” he said.

Mr. Sathyanarayana is of the opinion that the city does not need ‘so many road development projects’. “The need of the hour is scientific solid waste management and solving the parking problem. While solid waste management gets only Rs. 100 crore, an allocation of Rs. 10 crore has been made for implementation of the new parking policy. Allocation to these areas should be increased,” he said.

Stating that the BBMP would write to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah urging him to increase the allocation to the BBMP, he said that Rs. 100 crore has been allotted for footpath development, but work is possible only if encroachments are removed. “For this, the government must first issue a strict order on removal of encroachments and ensure that BBMP gets police protection for the same.”

Additional revenue

Meanwhile, BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan said that the BBMP will have to mobilise around Rs. 633 crore to execute the projects mentioned in the budget. “This year, we are expecting additional revenue through Akrama Sakrama and betterment charges. We anticipate these two sources to generate around Rs. 700 crore,” he said.