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Contest for Mayor’s post hots up

Tuesday, 03 September 2013 04:59 administrator
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The Hindu              03.09.2013

Contest for Mayor’s post hots up

Staff Reporter

With just a day left for the election to the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, the contest has intensified. The Mayor’s post has been reserved for the general category, while the Deputy Mayor’s post is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (woman).

On Monday, BJP’s city MLAs met to decide on the mayoral candidate. With no consensus, the party leadership has scheduled a meeting with its 113 councillors on Tuesday.

There is no ambiguity with regard to the Deputy Mayor’s post, as there is only one lady councillor — Indira from Byatarayanapura — belonging to Scheduled Tribes category in the BBMP council.

The frontrunners for the Mayor’s post are Basavanagudi councillor B.S. Sathyanarayana, Pattabhiramanagar councillor C.K. Ramamurthy, J.P. Park councillor B.R. Nanjundappa, Dr. Rajkumar ward councillor Gangabyraiah and Vijayanagar councillor H. Ravindra.

BJP sources said that caste will play an important role in who will become the next Mayor. Of the five frontrunners, two belong to the Brahmin community and three hail from the Vokkaliga community. The decision is a loaded one, as it will have a bearing on the next Lok Sabha elections.

Sources said that if a Brahmin councillor is chosen for the post, then one from the Vokkaliga community will be made Ruling Party Leader and vice-versa. “The final decision will be announced only after the party has sought the opinion of councillors,” sources added.

So who can vote in the Mayoral polls? The total strength of the BBMP council is 270. This includes, 198 councillors — 113 from BJP, 64 from Congress, 15 from Janata Dal (S) and six independents, 28 city MLAs, eight MLCs, 12 Rajya Sabha MPs, four Lok Sabha MPs and 20 nominated members. However, the nominated members have no voting powers. As it is, there are no nominated members in the BBMP council at present. After the new Congress government came to power in the State, the 20 members were asked to resign from the council membership.

 

Civic body helpline gets over 100 calls a day

Friday, 30 August 2013 11:53 administrator
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The Times of India               30.08.2013 

Civic body helpline gets over 100 calls a day

PUNE: Within two weeks of its launch, the PimpriChinchwad municipal corporation (PCMC)'s helpline has picked up, receiving over 100 calls a day. The helpline launched on Independence Day for citizens to register complains and seek information on municipal services has already received 2,169 calls.

The helpline (number 88880 06666), has received as many as 393 calls from citizens with complaints ranging from water supply, drainage, traffic, encroachments, and issues related to the garden and veterinary department. The municipal corporation also received many complaints regarding parking. Citizens also called to seek information about various civic services, said Thomas Naronha, in-charge of the helpline.

The corporation has also received queries on the Universal Identification (UID) number, shop act licence, and caste certificate. "The complaints are forwarded to the respective civic departments who take prompt action on it. Once a week, the municipal commissioner also reviews the complaints received and solved. We have received calls from citizens appreciating our service," said Naronha.

Naronha said that at present, the call centre is able to handle four calls at a time. PCMC will improve the system whereby 10 calls can be handled at a time. The centre operates from 7am to 10pm. The corporation has uploaded some frequently asked questions about the 28 civic departments on the SARATHI (System of Assisting Residents and Tourists helpline information) on its website.

PCMC standing committee chairman Navnath Jagtap said that while complains made to the helpline were being addressed, those made to corporators by the citizens were being ignored by the civic body. "Citizens who complain on the helpline directly are able to get quick service from the civic officials. Their problems are solved immediately, because the municipal commissioner personally reviews the helpline work,'' he said.

 

Solid waste: National seminar begins in city

Tuesday, 27 August 2013 10:34 administrator
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The New Indian Express             27.08.2013

Solid waste: National seminar begins in city

A two-day national seminar, ‘Preparing for the urban challenges of the 21st century’, with focus on solid waste management, began here on Monday.

It started with the session ‘Challenges of urbanisation in India’. Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali was the chief guest and it was chaired by Chief Secretary E K Bharat Bhushan.

Ali, while addressing the seminar, said that the process for starting municipal solid waste-to-energy plants at three select locations in the state was over.

The seminar is being organised by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) in association with the state government.

The session started with the opening remarks by Isher Judge Ahluwalia, project leader and chairperson of ICRIER, New Delhi. There were presentations on ‘HPEC (Ahluwalia) report in 2011’ by Tanushree Bhan, which highlighted the reality of urbanisation and an ‘Overview on solid waste management in India’ by Suneel Pandey, senior fellow of TERI, New Delhi, that touched upon the advantages and disadvantages of various methods used for solid waste management. 

The second session was on ‘Solid waste management and disposal’ chaired by Principal Secretary, Local Self-Government James Varghese. Presentations were made by E H Pathan on the solid waste management of Surat municipal corporation, G Latha on Coimbatore municipal corporation and Tarika Khanna on Gorai landfill.

The theme of the afternoon session was ‘Biomethanation of segregated waste’ and began with an overview by Sharad P Kale, associate professor of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Mumbai. There were sessions on the biomethanation practices in Pune, in Andhra Pradesh, waste to energy project at Solapur municipal corporation and decentralised solid waste management practices of CREDAI.

The second day, Tuesday, will begin with a special session on ‘Solid waste management in Indian cities’ chaired by Sudhir Krishna. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will deliver the special address. Presentations will be on ‘Current initiatives in solid waste management in Indian cities’, ‘Issues in municipal waste-to-energy’ and ‘Issues in solid waste management in Kerala.’

K Kasturirangan, Member of Planning Commission and K M Chandrasekhar, Vice-Chairman of State Planning Board will speak.

Session two on the day will deal with experiments in waste-to-energy, chaired by Kasturirangan. There will be presentations on thermal gasification in Pune, advanced fuel combustion technology in Kanpur and mass burn technology in Jindal, Delhi.

The concluding session will deal with the issues in public-private partnership in solid waste management which will be followed by a discussion.

 
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