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Public Health / Sanitation

MCD plans penalty for litterbugs

Thursday, 10 December 2009 11:33 administrator
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Indian Express 10.12.2009

MCD plans penalty for litterbugs

In a bid to improve cleanliness in the Capital ahead of next October’s Commonwealth Games, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has decided to implement a host of improved sanitation facilities.

During the MCD budget presented on Wednesday, Municipal Commissioner K S Mehra said the civic body has already sent the Delhi Cleanliness and Sanitation By-laws (2009) to the state government for approval. If notified, the by-laws will enable the civic body to issue on-the-spot challans to offenders and charge higher penalty — between Rs 50 to Rs 500.

The MCD is currently authorised to only levy fines according to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act (1957) and can charge a maximum of Rs 50 for offences such as dumping garbage in public areas, depositing filth on the street among others, as per the provisions of the Act.

The Corporation is also contemplating civic sense awareness drives and harsher anti-littering measures, and has already initiated the first phase of the door-to-door collection of waste.

The garbage collection drive will be undertaken in all residential and commercial establishments by two different auto-tippers in two colours — green for bio-degradable and blue for non-bio-degradable waste.

The auto-tippers are small in size enabling them to navigate through narrow lanes and by-lanes and are fitted with sirens and a public address system to announce their arrival.

According to Commissioner Mehra, once the existing garbage dumps or dhallaos in areas where the auto-tipper scheme is to be implemented become vacant, they can be utilised for providing public utility services and help generate revenue for the civic body.

The proposal further said, around 100 acres at the landfill site near Ghazipur will be provided for deriving fuel or compost from waste and around 75 per cent of the garbage will be used for this. The remaining 25 per cent will be dumped at the landfill site.

The MCD also plans to install special ‘underground dustbins’ and do away with dhallaos before the Games. The civic body will begin by installing 67 such dustbins as the first phase of the project to ensure “hygienic garbage collection”. It will spend Rs 3.25 crore on each dustbin and the task of installing them has been given to a company from Finland.

Fines if by-laws are implemented
Offence-- existing fine--proposed fine

* Littering--Rs 50--Rs200

* Spitting--Rs 50--Rs 200

* Urinating in Public--Rs 50--Rs 200

* Feeding animals/birds--no fine--Rs 500 in non-designated areas

* Washing utensils/clothes--no fine--Rs 200 in non designated areas

Projects proposed: Old wine in new bottle?
Development projects:
* Town Hall redevelopment
* Novelty cinema complex redevelopment
* Defence Colony land belonging to defunct primary health centre to be redeveloped
* MCD Kashmere Gate Building redevelopment
* A district-cum-commercial centre in Raja Garden
* Development of MCD-owned vacant lands in areas like Ghazipur, Model Town, Raj Niwas and Tis Hazari. MCD is currently working on changing the land-use plan for the above vacant plots.
* Once implemented, the projects will generate revenue over Rs 1,500 crore.

Commonwealth Games projects
* Streetscaping of areas near the Games venues; development of multilevel parking lots near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Friends Colony, ITO, Janakpuri and Kamla Nagar
* Installing G2C kiosks, public telephone booths, vending kiosks, police booths and other public utilities
* Streetscaping and redevelopment of guest houses in Karol Bagh and Paharganj
* Constructing 16 new Railway under-bridges and over-bridges at a cost of Rs 440 crore for better traffic movement
* Improve sanitation and health facilities

Expenditure check
* A new monitoring committee will be formed to check and identify the sources of all dishonoured cheques that the Corporation receives from regional treasuries and citizen service bureaus
* New ‘security printed’ receipts, similar to bank cheques, will be issued to curb forgery
* Bio-metric attendance system, which has helped cut expenditure on overtime payments, to continue.
* Installation of prepaid electricity meters
* Investing available funds in small scale revenue earning projects rather than depositing them in banks
* Payment of salaries through ECS
* Strengthening mechanism for property tax and transfer duty collection
* Upgrading house tax rates according to the unit area method
* Avoiding unnecessary expenditure and cutting establishment expenditures
* Avoiding loans and consequent interest

Last Updated on Thursday, 10 December 2009 11:36
 

Cooum clean-up project takes off

Wednesday, 09 December 2009 10:44 administrator
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The Times of India 09.12.2009

Cooum clean-up project takes off

TNN 9 December 2009, 12:35am IST

CHENNAI: It's a giant effort, involving years of hard work and crores of rupees, to change the face of the city's infamous landmark -- the Cooum. On Tuesday, the Tamil Nadu government made a humble beginning, by reclaiming a stretch of land on the banks
of the waterway from encroachments and launching works to develop it into a park for public utility.
The roughly one-km stretch of land on the Gandhi-Irwin Road at Egmore, owned by the public works department, was handed over to the Chennai corporation for development of park and walk path for the use of general public.

Unveiling the ambitious Cooum restoration and management project from the banks of the stinking waterway at Egmore, deputy chief minister M K Stalin, who recently led a delegation to Singapore to study its river restoration model, said the initial phase of the clean up work had been estimated to cost Rs 1200 crore.

The initial phase would involve providing sewerage system for town and village panchayats and municipality at a cost of about Rs 200 crore, strengthening the existing sewage system for prevention of sewage overflow into Cooum at a cost of Rs 117 crore and improvement of the river front at a cost of Rs 200 crore. Steps will also been taken for the improvement of 71 tanks in the upstream area falling in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts and continuous dredging of river mouth.

While some of the works would be covered under the IAMWARM project implemented by the PWD and the JNURRM projects carried out by the municipal administration, both working out to the tune of Rs 600 crore, required funds for the remaining works would be finalised soon, he said.

Stating that a proposal had been presented to the Sathya Sai Trust, which took up lining works along the channel of Krishna water project, for funding the Cooum clean up, Stalin said the trust had assured to consider the proposal.
He also exuded confidence that the 72-km-long Cooum would be cleaned up well within a decade, the period taken by Singapore government to restore its much-polluted river, running to a stretch of 12 km.

Close on the heels of the constitution of the Chennai River Water Authority, which would be given statutory powers, the government would also set up an administrative committee, headed by the chief secretary, and a coordination committee to integrate the works of various disciplines and speed up the clean up work. The government would also seek technical assistance from the Public Utilities Board of Singapore, he added.

On the removal of encroachment which would be a major challenge, Stalin said about 9,500 families had encroached upon the river bank and they were already being evacuated under the proposed elevated expressway project. The evacuees would be suitably rehabilitated, he added.

As environmental and social enhancement measures, it is proposed to provide river walk, boating for recreational/tourist/commercial purposes, Cooum park and museum and events such as water sports to generate revenues and maintain interest in the river.
 

Gender bias? VMC to pay NGOs only for female dogs’ sterilisation

Monday, 07 December 2009 10:03 administrator
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Indian Express 7.12.2009

Gender bias? VMC to pay NGOs only for female dogs’ sterilisation

In A bizarre move, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has decided not to give any financial support to the non-government organisations (NGOs) for sterilising male dogs in the city. This assumes significance as the NGOs will get Rs 460 for sterilising a female dog under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme.

The contract signed by the NGOs, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, says the organisations entrusted with the task of sterilising stray dogs have been categorically told that they would not be given any financial assistance in case they sterilise a male dog.

The official in-charge of ABC programme, Mangesh Jaiswal, said the contract was made in consultation with the NGOs, which have been awarded the contract. Ruling out any “gender bias” in the contract, he said: “It was decided that the organisations will take financial aid from the VMC for sterilising female dogs. And for the male dogs they sterilise, they will have to claim the amount from the Animal Welfare Board of India under Ministry of Environment and Forests.”

For the organisations taking part in the ABC programme, their job remains the same.

“When we catch dogs for sterilisation, we don’t give preference to their gender, as for us it is a non-profit activity. But at the same time, we often end up catching more male dogs. Moreover, we are not getting any financial help from the Animal Welfare Board of India. We are managing the programme with our own funds,” said Dr Pratibha Panchal, administrator VCARE, which has also been given contract by the VMC.

Last Updated on Monday, 07 December 2009 10:05
 
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