The Times of India  30.09.2010

Union govt approves Rs 2 cr grant for PCMC

PUNE: The union government has approved a Rs 2 crore grant to the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to implement the first phase of service level benchmark (SLB) improvement scheme for basic amenities.

The twin township is among the 22 cities selected for the project from the beneficiaries of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme.

Additional commissioner Subhash Dumbre said, "The union government approved this grant at the meeting of representatives of the 22 municipal corporations held at New Delhi on September 27."

Deputy engineer Pravin Ladkat said, "The union government has selected 22 cities from 65 cities that get funds under JNNURM scheme, for setting SLB for four basic amenities like water supply, sewage, solid waste management and storm water drains. Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik and Kolhapur municipal corporations from Maharashtra have been selected. The aim of the scheme is to conduct a survey to know how these municipal corporations provide the basic amenities, improve their performance and then bring these amenities at a specific level in all the municipal corporations."

Ladkat said that the SLB improvement scheme has two components namely information system improvement plan (ISIP) and performance improvement plan (PIP).

"In ISIP the municipal corporation conducts a survey to know the status of the basic amenities being provided and prepares a plan to improve them. PCMC had prepared a report and sought Rs 3.74 crore from the union government to collect the information about the four basic amenities. This included Rs 2.74 crore for water supply, Rs 60 lakh for sewage and Rs 40 lakh for solid waste management. No funds were sought for storm water drains. The union government approved our demand only for water supply and in the first phase released Rs 2 crore for water supply improvement plan," he said.

About the work to be conducted under the water supply improvement plan, he said, "PCMC had sought Rs 90 lakh to conduct survey about water supply, Rs 15 lakh for setting up a customer complaint redressal cell and Rs 1.5 crore to conduct water audit. PCMC will start undertaking these activities as soon as it receives the Rs 2 crore."

Ladkar further said that after the ISIP the civic body will undertake PIP and again seek money from the union government.

The Times of India  30.09.2010

GURGAON: The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon has already spent Rs 55 lakh to fill up the citys potholes. Now, it has a plan to spend another Rs 85 lakh to put bitumen on damaged portions.

The civic agency has identified over a dozen roads like IFFCO Chowk, Bata Chowk, Old and New Railway roads, Sector 5, Sheetla Mata Road, Khandsa Road and Basai Road for the bitumen work.

But commuters are not impressed. I have been skipping the Sadar Bazar Road (old city) for the past 5-6 months only because of the bad road condition, said Amit Kumar, a Palam Vihar resident. Some roads, Kumar said, were covered during the monsoon but things were was back to square one. Local civic agencies have done little to improve the road condition with honesty, alleged Rao Lal Singh, a local from the old city and Dinesh Gupta, a practicing lawyer.

MCG officials, however, justified the Rs 55 lakh expenditure. We have not yet released the total amount. We have made it clear to the contractors that they have to get in writing from locals that the task has been completed. The Rs 85 lakh expenditure is for black topping of the already-filled portions. If we had to complete both the pothole filling and bituminous work during monsoon, we would have to spend the same amount, said a senior engineer.

The engineer said that they are not undertaking any major job of relaying entire stretch of roads since they have only a few roads under their jurisdiction.

In fact, the bad road condition in the city was exposed on Tuesday when the route of Queens Baton Rally was changed at the last minute since the Basai Road had several potholes.