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Now, pay water bills at post offices

Wednesday, 09 October 2013 04:22 administrator
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The Hindu                09.10.2013

Now, pay water bills at post offices

S.R. Praveen

Service will be available in five districts from today

Now, consumers of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) need not worry about the limited number of counters and the winding queues to pay water bills. The bills can be paid at post offices from Wednesday.

In the initial stage, the service will be available across five districts — Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Kottayam, Kollam and Palakkad. It will be a perfect gift for the State on the World Post Day.

“We have been running a trial of the water bills payment gateway for the past one year in the capital district. It was found to be successful and so we decided to extend the service to other districts. For the first few months, it will be available in the urban areas of five districts. Later, we plan to extend the facility to all the post offices in the State,” K.V. Vijayakumar, Assistant Director of Technology and Administration, Postal Department, told The Hindu .

The move is part of the department’s various initiatives to make post offices the one-stop shop for services required by every type of customer. Plans are also afoot to include electricity bills among the list of services.

Computerisation

The computerisation of all the 1,506 major post offices in the State was completed as part of the 11th plan. The work on digitising the 3,500-odd branch post offices, located in remote regions, will be taken up soon. Once this work is completed, these smaller centres will also become part of the integrated postal network across the State.

“The plan is to digitise the working of these branch offices using handheld devices, smart phones, thermal printers and barcode scanners. In places where electricity is scarce or is yet to reach, we will use solar panels. Various information technology players such as Accenture, TCS and Infosys are taking care of the various aspects of the project,” said Mr. Vijayakumar.

As of now, the performance of 1,285 post offices in the State are being monitored closely as part of the ‘Project Arrow’ initiative launched in 2008 to improve the quality of services in the core areas of mail delivery, money remittances, savings bank and office service levels.

The ‘look and feel’ of the post offices is also being improved as part of this project. The external branding as well as the interior design of the offices has been standardised.

 

BMC tightens audits of dangerous buildings

Wednesday, 09 October 2013 04:21 administrator
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The Times of India                08.10.2013

BMC tightens audits of dangerous buildings

MUMBAI: A 'techno-economic' viability study will be made compulsory for municipal buildings in precarious conditions and only civil engineers with three years of work experience in repairs and reinforcement will be authorized to opine on the structural stability of dilapidated buildings. Earlier, the BMC conducted only a visual inspection of buildings in the C1 category (dilapidated and in need of demolition) and C2 B (dangerous portions need to be demolished) and engineers from ward offices and the executive engineer from the planning and design department would remark on the structural stability.

This new stricture is part of a BMC circular, issued on October 4, on the action plan to be adopted for structural audits of municipal buildings in dangerous conditions. A separate circular has been issued for private buildings.

The circular states that the government has modified the MMC Act 1888, thereby incorporating Section 353B making structural audits compulsory in case of private buildings that have completed 30 years or more. It is necessary to submit a certificate stating that the building is fit for human habitation from a registered licensed structural engineer within one year, and thereafter on completion of every 10 years.

The municipal commissioner is empowered to issue a notice to the owner or occupants of the building in writing at any time to get the structural audit done from a registered licensed structural engineer within 30 days from issuance of such notice and to submit the certificate that the building is structurally sound for inhabitation.

"If remedial measures are suggested, they should be carried out in six months from the submission of the structural audit report or the building owner/ occupants shall be liable for a penalty as per amended Section 471 of the MMC Act 1888," said a civic official.

The circular states that if the owner/occupants fail to carry out remedial measures, the commissioner can demand the expenditure incurred from them. If they fail to pay in 30 days, the same will be recovered from pending assessment bill from the owner or occupants.

In the wake of the Mazgaon building collapse, civic chief Sitaram Kunte has directed that every property, falling in the ambit of the life span of 30 years or more, stipulated in new Section 353B, be perceived for structural auditing by all the user departments for municipal buildings with immediate effect.

There are around 4,500 municipal buildings with different user departments-estates, schools, hospitals, solid waste management quarters, hydraulic engineer, ward offices, markets and offices of central agencies. The BMC has declared 95 buildings under C1 category in need of demolition and has evacuated over 54 buildings till date.

"For evacuation of structure, if required, the user department shall demand and refer to the local ward office's assistant commissioner or deputy municipal commissioner and the local police. Evacuation will be carried out in three or seven or 15 days and time for propping will be assessed with the approval of executive engineer ward and deputy chief engineer, not later than 30 days," said a civic official.

For propping the structure and other safety measures, the civil engineers from the user department shall carry out the exercise plans and estimates with the approval of deputy chief engineer based on the structural audit report.

 

E-tendering: Submitting earnest money now must for contractors

Wednesday, 09 October 2013 04:18 administrator
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The Times of India                08.10.2013

E-tendering: Submitting earnest money now must for contractors

GURGAON: After coming across loopholes in the e-tendering system, the municipal corporation has taken certain preventive measures to plug them. It has now made it mandatory for all the contractors participating in the bid process to submit earnest money along with the tender document for any given project. Not only was MCG losing revenue but it also lead to lot of corruption among MCG officials and contractors.

Earnest money is two percent of the total cost of the project and all contractors are supposed to submit this amount. However, recently it was brought to the knowledge of the municipal commissioner that not everyone was paying this amount. Only those contractors who were sure about bagging the contract used to pay this amount while the rest did not bother to do so. Moreover in some cases, when the bidding process was underway and if a contractor sensed that he might probably get the contract, it was then that he would pay the earnest money.

Recently TOI had report about how a road project in Rajendra Park got embroiled in a controversy after a contractor complained to the municipal commissioner PC Meena, that how despite being the lowest bidder he still failed to get the contract. It was in the light of this compliant that the review of the e-tendering process was conducted and the necessary changes have been brought in.

Talking to TOI, the commissioner said that the monitoring of the e-tendering system needs to be strengthened further. "During the review of the entire process it emerged that certain officials were partially trying to manage the show and we have plugged all the loopholes we have come across. Action will be taken against those guilty. It was now been made mandatory for all contractors participating in the bid process to pay the earnest money right at the time of submitting the tender document. The receipt of this amount that can be submitted online or at the citizen facilitation center (CFC) needs to be attached with the document," he said.

The cornered contractors are up in arms against this move and also held a meeting with the commissioner to withdraw this new move. However, their argument was thrashed at the meeting. "They claimed that they are illiterate and do not understand the implications and therefore it should be withdrawn. However, the commissioner did not budge from his position," said a source. 

 
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