The Deccan Chronicle  29.11.2010

Nov. 28: With its monthly revenue towards water bill collections not even crossing 60 per cent in several areas of the city, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) has issued an ultimatum to non-performing meter readers that they will be demoted as sewerage workers if collections do not improve in the next two months.

The Board has also announced incentives for meter readers who crossed 60 per cent bill collections in their respective areas. At present, the Board is getting Rs 30 crore per month towards collections which is less than 60 per cent.

If cent per cent billing is achieved and 100 per cent collections are done, the Board will get over Rs 50 crore every month. However, a large number of consumers in the city are not getting monthly bills.

There have also been complaints from some consumers who say they have received accumulated bills of 10 months at one shot. A review of the track record of the 40 non-performing meter readers revealed that they were appointed on compassionate grounds after the death of their parent. Some of them were also appointed as drainage workers and later promoted as meter readers.

When contacted, Water Board executive director, Mr Ashok Reddy, confirmedthat an ultimatum had been given to the meter readers to improve performance by achieving over 60 per cent collection or get demoted as sewerage workers.

Likewise, those achieving collections between 61 and 70 per cent will be given an incentive of Rs 2,000 per month. For collections between 71 and 80 per cent the incentive is Rs 3,000, for 81 to 90 per cent the incentive is Rs 4,000 per month and for 91 per cent to 100 per cent, the reward is Rs 5,000 per month.

The Times of India              26.11.2010

Roadside food vendors clean up their act

GURGAON: The roadside vendors of Gurgaon are taking the road less travelled. With hopes of licensing procedures being put in place for the food and beverage market, the vendors in almost 15 industrial localities of Gurgaon are offering fresh and hygienically packaged food.

I have a food stall in Udyog Vihar, outside the IBM office, and since Ive started selling packed food my sales have almost doubled from Rs 4,000 to Rs 9,000 approximately. People recommend my food to their friends and being amid large corporates, the sale figures are on a constant rise, said Vikram Swami, who is originally from Rajasthan but has been a vendor in Gurgaon for over five years.

The roadside vendors have an edge over the corporate canteens in two ways. Their food is prepared in smaller quantities without any use of preservatives and therefore its closer to home-cooked food, and secondly, it is priced very reasonably.

The canteen food in offices is oily and spicy. The vendors are doing a much better job, said Avinash Sirohi, who works in Udyog Vihar.

It saves me more than an hour in the morning if my husband and I eat lunch from the vendors. And the packaging is excellent so we are assured that its safe to eat, said Sonali Mukherjee, another corporate
executive.

The food sold in the roadside stalls is largely outsourced, so from the time the food is prepared till its sold to the customers, the hygiene factor is well taken care of. According to Nitin Agarwal, proprietor of Chakh le India, a catering company that prepares packaged food sold by vendors in the market, Theres immense scope in the roadside food market in Gurgaon because the kind of food options available with the working crowd is very limited, and most of it is priced higher than its worth. Considering the huge consumer base available in Gurgaon, the concept of organizing roadside market is going to be big hit.

With an elaborate menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, vendors in Gurgaon are selling everything from idlis, to rajma chawal, and samosas. The food reaches us at 10 in the morning and we usually get the stock according to our daily demand. So on most days we end up selling all the packets by three in the evening, said Vishnu, a vendor, who has his stall outside the Airtel building. Earlier it was only the lemon soda that sold, but now I sell more food packets than ever, and our clientele includes a lot of corporate workers, as opposed to manual laborers and rickshaw pullers who ate at my stall earlier, added Vishnu.