The Hindu 07.01.2011
New plan for Shimoga's upkeep ready
The City Municipal Council (CMC) at its meeting here on Thursday decided to entrust the cleaning exercise in the select 25 wards to private agencies as a package to ensure proper cleanliness and hygiene in the city. The meeting decided to seek suggestions of the Standing Committee regarding the wards where the package should be implemented before the proposal was sent to the Government for its approval.
Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj, who attended the meeting as a special invitee, said there was a need to lay more emphasis on cleanliness. He said the package programme was inevitable for proper maintenance of cleanliness in the city. Environmental engineer at the CMC, Manukumar, said cleanliness drive in the 25 wards would be outsourced to private agencies for seven years under the proposed package which covered the responsibility of maintaining cleanliness of roads, conservancies, and removal of debris from the houses and commercial buildings.
He said there were 58,363 residential houses and 12,000 commercial buildings apart from 35,000 houses in the slums which produced nearly one ton garbage everyday. He said it was proposed to take up the cleanliness work through 190 civic workers in the remaining 10 wards collecting the garbage through 73 auto tippers.
However, councillors S.K. Mariappa, M. Shankar and Vishwanath took objection to the yardstick being applied in the selection of wards for the implementation of the special package. Deputy Commissioner suggested that the decision on it could be taken after placing the matter before the Standing Committee.
Referring to the problems arising in the low-lying areas when affected by flash floods, he suggested preparing an action plan to improve the drainage system so that the Government could be approached for financial assistance for its implementation.
He said cleaning of the conservancies would be taken up for their being used as parking space for vehicles.
He said the conservancy next to the Mallikarjun cinema would be taken up on an experimental basis for developing it as the parking space. Mr. Ponnuraj asked the municipal authorities to ensure that the parking and setback rules were not violated in the construction of the new buildings.
