The Hindu 25.08.2010
Water shortage, sanitation dominate GMC meeting
Staff Reporter
| Urgent steps sought to ensure equitable distribution of water |
A main distribution line being laid from Takkellapadu filtration plant to Nehru Nagar
Commissioner says door-to-door collection will be made more effective
— Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar 
HEATED EXCHANGES:Congress and TDP councillors embroiled in a war of words at the general body meeting of GMC held in Guntur on Tuesday.
Guntur: Corporators cutting across party lines have vented their ire against Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC) officials blaming them for the water shortage and appalling sanitary conditions prevailing in the city.
Raising the issue at the general body meeting held on Tuesday, Guntur East MLA Sk. Mastan Vali said the GMC has failed to ensure equitable distribution of water to all households, including many in One Town.
Clarifying on the issue, Municipal Commissioner Ilambarithi said the city did not have an effective water distribution network.
He assured that a slew of innovative measures to be taken up in 6-8 months, would ensure equitable and pressurised supply of water.
The GMC would make use of hydraulic model incorporated in the Union Government's Service Level Benchmarking (SLB) project and rationalise supply of water. Rationalisation had already begun from Nallacheruvu area, he said.
A main distribution line was being laid from Takkellapadu filtration plant to Nehru Nagar railway gate, which would pump water to HLR, Gujjanagundla and Stambalagaruvu reservoirs.
The second pipeline would pump water from BR Stadium reservoir to LB Nagar and Srinivasarao Thota reservoir, the Commissioner added.
Later, the MLA raised the sanitation issue and said heaps of garbage was being strewn on Ponnur Road in spite of GMC having a dumping yard.
He also found fault with GMC for doing away with night sanitation drive which was started in 2008.
Mayor R Mohan Sai Krishna clarified that dumper placers belonging to GMC have been depositing garbage at the dumping yard located 15 km away from the city and blamed the owners of function halls for throwing garbage.
He said a proposal to levy user charges from function halls to collect waste was on the cards.
Many Congress corporators, including Balatripura Sundari and Md. Noorjahan, wanted the GMC to hire the contract sanitary workers.
Mr. Ilambarithi shot down the proposal to hire more sanitary workers and assured that door-to-door collection would be made more effective.
Admitting that the existing tricycle system failed to bring the desired results, the Commissioner said autos, with two trays segregating bio-degradable and non bio-degradable waste, would be procured with the grants of 13th Finance Commission.
