The Hindu 24.11.2009

Minister takes Davangere City Corporation officials to task

Staff Correspondent

Taking stock: Urban Development Minister S. Suresh Kumar at the Mandakki Bhatti in Davangere on Monday.

DAVANGERE: Urban Development Minister S. Suresh Kumar on Monday took officials of the Davangere City Corporation to task for not ensuring quality of projects taken up utilising the Chief Minister’s special grant of Rs. 100 crore.

The Minister said he would get the projects inspected by a professional agency and initiate action against officials concerned based on its report.

Mr. Suresh Kumar addressed a meeting of officials after visiting several localities and inspecting various development projects in the city. He expressed his disappointment over the quality of the projects.

He asked the officials how they allowed laying of concrete road without constructing storm-water drains along it or making provision for the drains.

Mr. Suresh Kumar said that he had not seen any officials who were so “dishonest” and “unprofessional”.

Surprised

The Minister was surprised when an officer of a private agency appointed to check the quality of the projects said that the agency had given 100 marks to all public works implemented in the city.

Mr. Suresh Kumar said that he had inspected almost all the projects taken up in the city. The Minister said he might have to appoint another agency to inspect the quality of the projects and to ascertain the veracity of the report submitted by this agency.

S.A. Ravindranath, Agriculture Minister and also Davangere district in charge, said that staff of the third party agency appointed to inspect the projects were only diploma holders and did not have any technical knowledge.

Later, Mr. Suresh Kumar told presspersons that the Government would not release special grants next year to corporations that had implemented substandard projects.

Survey

He had directed officials concerned to conduct a survey of unauthorised buildings in the Davangere City Corporation limits and demolish such structures.

Mayor of Davangere Uma Prakash, Deputy Mayor B. Lokesh and Commissioner of the corporation Prasanna Kumar were present.

Earlier, Mr. Suresh Kumar visited Mandakki Bhatti area and was shocked to see the level of air pollution in the locality owing to smoke emanating from several puffed rice units. He asked Deputy Commissioner K. Amaranarayan to instruct owners of the puffed rice units to either install modern ovens or to close down the units.

The Hindu 24.11.2009

Citizens stay away from GHMC polls

Special Correspondent

— PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

FLOP POLL: A polling booth wearing a deserted look at Ravindra Naik Nagar in old city of Hyderabad on Monday.

HYDERABAD: Poor response from voters for the first Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections once again reflected the apathy of citizens of the capital towards local body polls. Save for a few minor incidents, polling was peaceful and low turnout was universal across the 150 divisions on Monday.

Chances of a repoll are likely in only one polling station in Defence Colony (135 – polling station 42) because of a complaint over the voters list while two units of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were changed in Marredpally (149 – 25th P.S.) and Musheerabad (91 - seventh P.S.) divisions before the poll began, due to low battery charge.

A police case was filed in Puranapul division (53) following a fracas between a candidate’s relative and a polling agent of another party, said Election Authority and Commissioner S.P. Singh at a press conference he addressed along with District Election Officer M.T. Krishna Babu.

Poll percentage was about 46 per cent and final figure could take some more time since polling was still on in a few polling stations of Serilingampally and Kukatpally divisions, he said.

Elections were conducted in an orderly fashion, said Mr. Singh who complimented everybody involved in the process.

“Our election observers too have not informed us about any major incident. They toured all divisions extensively, especially the sensitive polling stations. They will be submitting their reports to the State Election Commission (SEC),” he said.

Earlier in the day, either empty polling booths or sparse voters were seen in several parts of the twin cities when polling began at 7 a.m. First hour of polling saw only five per cent and it increased to eight per cent in the second hour.

Only by noon did the figure creep up to 18 per cent.

Mr. Krishna Babu said that fewer EVM glitches during the poll is also because mock polling was taken up on Sunday night itself as many reserve polling staff were drafted for work.