Urban News

The Hindu 03.12.2009

Corporation yet to come out with policy on sewer lines

Staff Correspondent

— Photo: R. Eswarraj

Ready: The sewage treatment plant set up by the KUIDFC at Pachchanady in Mangalore.

MANGALORE: Some senior councillors of the Mangalore City Corporation have said that authorities of the civic body have failed to announce a policy on connecting sewer lines from houses to the newly laid sewerage network, especially in Pachchanady area.

This had led to confusion among residents of the area, they have said.

The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) has set up a new sewage treatment plant (STP) at Pachchanady.

It has a capacity to treat 8.75 MLD (million litres a day) of sewage.

Meeting

In a meeting with councillors a few months ago, J.R. Lobo, Deputy Project Director of KUIDFC, Mangalore, had suggested that the city corporation come out with a policy on connecting sewer lines from houses to the sewerage network laid by the KUIDFC. This was aimed at testing the operation of the STP.

He had said that the policy should clarify who should connect the sewer lines from houses to the sewerage network (manholes) — house owners or the corporation. If the corporation workers were to connect the lines, what was the fee to be collected from the house owners.

Mr. Lobo had suggested that the MCC take a decision to this effect at the earliest so as to commence the operation of the STP at Pachchanady. Though the matter was included in the agenda, the city corporation council meeting on Monday failed to come out with a clear stand on the issue.

In spite of Mariyamma Thomas, senior member, urging the Mayor to announce a clear policy to this effect, the latter gave a vague reply. Ms. Thomas told The Hindu on Wednesday that if the MCC allowed people to connect the sewer lines from houses to manholes themselves, there were chances of the manholes getting damaged and roads being dug up haphazardly.

Instead, the MCC could collect a nominal fee from the house owners and hire a contractor to implement the task.

The contractor should also be entrusted with the task of asphalting the portion of roads that would be dug up, she said.

Harinath, Leader of the Opposition in the council, concurred with the views of Ms. Thomas.

Mayor M. Shankar Bhat had said that the MCC recently provided training to 130 plumbers on methods of connecting sewer lines to manholes.

People should approach such plumbers identified by the MCC and get the sewer lines connected at their own cost, he had said.

Refuting the Mayor’s statement, Mr. Harinath said that the corporation had not trained any plumbers. The Opposition members had no knowledge of it, he said, and alleged that the Mayor was misleading the people.

Indian Express 02.12.2009

PMC unveils health scheme for the poor

The Pune Municipal Corporation on Tuesday announced the launch of a health assistance scheme for which the civic body will incur 50 per cent — the maximum would be Rs 1 lakh—¿ of hospitalisation expenses of patients who take up the plan.

The scheme will be only for families with less than Rs 1 lakh annual income.

“The prime responsibility of the civic body is to provide better health services to citizens. Civic hospitals lack advance medical facilities and impoverished citizens have to approach private hospitals for treatment that is unaffordable to them,” said Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Zagade at a press conference.

According to the scheme, the beneficiaries will be eligible to get 50 per cent of hospitalisation expenses up to a maximum limit of Rs 1 lakh in any of the 44 listed private hospitals.

“The scheme is only open for slum-dwellers and people below poverty line having an annual income of less than Rs 1 lakh. Around 12 lakh citizens are likely to benefit from the scheme,” said Zagade. To be part of the scheme, the eligible citizens have to register their family with the civic body at an annual fee of Rs 100 per family, which would include the couple, parents and first two children till they reach the age of 25 years. It will be applicable to the third child born before January 1, 2005.

However, the scheme will not be applicable for citizens who are eligible for assistance from other government or private organisations.

A condition has been set for the beneficiaries that the patient should get primary medical treatment at civic hospitals and it will be only after recommendation from the PMC-run Kamala Nehru Hospital that the patient will be referred to the enlisted 44 private hospitals.

A separate cell for implementation of the scheme and two civic staff at each of the 40 civic public health centers will be made available to facilitate the process for availing benefits.

“The civic body is expected to incur expenditure of Rs 4 crore to implement the scheme. There would be additional financial provision made in the next year budget depending upon the response to the scheme this year,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner M S Devanikar. He said the registeration of citizens will be done in the month of December every year and identity cards issued in January.

The citizens have to submit proof of residential address, ration card, birth certificate of children and two family photographs for registration. Those registering for the scheme will also get the benefit of not paying fee for the case paper at civic hospitals.