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2 nominations filed for water supply panel chief’s post, elections on April 11

Saturday, 06 April 2013 08:07 administrator
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The New Indian Express                    06.04.2013

2 nominations filed for water supply panel chief’s post, elections on April 11

In what will necessitate election for the chairperson of the Water Supply and Sewerage Disposal Committee of the Municipal Corporation, two nominated councillors filed their papers for the post on Friday. The elections will be held on April 11.

Councillors Shagufta Praveen and Surinder Bahga filed their nominations Friday. Three sub-committees were notified a few days ago by the Municipal Corporation. Apart from the Water Supply Committee, the other two are Roads and House Tax Committees. While for the last two committees, election is not being held and the chairpersons will be elected unanimously, the Water Supply Committee will witness a contest.

There are nine members in a committee. In Water Supply, there are three from Congress, three nominated councillors, two from BJP and one Independent. With one nominated councillor pitted against the other, it has led to intense lobbying. The nominated councillors are known to have completely supported the Congress during the mayoral polls as well as proceedings in the House. It is however expected that Surinder Bahga will find favour among the BJP, with the councillors of the party expected to vote for him.

The remaining nine committees are yet to be approved by the UT Administrator. With the BJP already crying foul over the recommended names, it is likely that some of these committees would also witness elections.

In another development, Mayor Subhash Chawla dissolved the committee constituted to make recommendations about recruitments in the MC. Surinder Bahga was the chairman of the committee.

 

GHMC corporators plan study tours

Friday, 05 April 2013 09:08 administrator
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The New Indian Express                  05.04.2013

GHMC corporators plan study tours

As many as 150 corporators and five co-opted members of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation will soon be going on study tours at the expense of the taxpayer. Though within the country, their trips are likely to cost Rs 1.25 crore. The corporators will go on tours for 10 days in four different batches from the third week of this month.

The GHMC will spend Rs 80,000 on each and this includes air fare, accommodation, food and other facilities etc.

The Lokayukta, which took a serious view of the study tours, has put a rider this year that the groups visiting different cities should submit detailed reports about the best practices being implemented in those cities and whether such practices are suitable for Hyderabad. It was dismayed at their choice of destinations and had also sought explanations from the GHMC as to how the earlier trips helped in developing the city.

GHMC officials told Express that corporators wanted to study implementation of city development plans in matters of public health, sanitation, town planning, engineering, advertisements, collection of property tax and others.

The Majilis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) corporators will go in two batches batches. One batch will go to Northern cities like Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Ajmer while another batch will visit Thrissur, Kochi, Kozhikode and Trivandrum. The Congress planned the study tour to Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Jaipur while the Telugu Desam and BJP planned to visit Mumbai, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Ahmedabad.

 

Lakshminarayana joins the Clean City Championship campaign

Friday, 05 April 2013 06:09 administrator
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The Hindu                     05.04.2013

Lakshminarayana joins the Clean City Championship campaign

Joint Director of CBI V.V Lakshminarayana being presented a pencil sketch portrait by a student in Guntur on Thursday. District Collector S. Suresh Kumar and Chairman of Pragti Resorts GBK Rao are also seen. —Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar
Joint Director of CBI V.V Lakshminarayana being presented a pencil sketch portrait by a student in Guntur on Thursday. District Collector S. Suresh Kumar and Chairman of Pragti Resorts GBK Rao are also seen. —Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

Taking a break in the midst of a high profile investigation into Disproportionate Assets (DA) against Kadapa MP Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy, Joint Director of CBI, V.V Lakshminarayana turned into a spirited campaigner for effective and scientific management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) at a meeting of stakeholders convened here on Thursday.

The meeting was organised by Guntur Municipal Corporation, which will log into Clean City Championship, a la IPL Championship in which urban local bodies will vie with each other in effectively segregating and recycling solid waste into energy. Chairman of Pragti Resorts, Gadde Bala Koteswara Rao, was the official sponsor of the programme.

Mr. Lakshminarayana, who is a now a household name in the State, was the main attraction at the meeting attended by leading industrialists, representatives of civic society and tax payers association and was the last to speak.

“I have taken leave for a day to be at the meeting since the cause is dear to me. I believe that we have the capacity to become a model country by the year 2020 like the one envisioned by former President Abdul Kalam in his Vision:2020 document,” Mr. Lakshminarayana said.

As the audience sat glued and an attentive media capturing his every movement, Mr. Lakshminarayana went on and reminded about the Surat model, which transformed a plague-hit city into the second cleanest city in the country.

“Effective solid waste management and rainwater harvesting can transform our country,” he said.

He narrated his contrasting experiences of visiting a ‘health city,’ a place throbbing with hospitals and Pragti Resorts on the outskirts of Hyderabad

He concluded his speech by narrating a short story about a beggar squatting on a pot of gold for 30 years, only to be reminded by a pious soul about his foolishness. “We all have gold in our hearts but like the beggar, we are unmindful of it,” Mr. Lakshminarayana rounded off.

District Collector and Special Officer of Guntur Municipal Corporation S. Suresh Kumar pledged his support to the initiative and said that Rs.70 lakh from 12th plan would be spent on sanitation.

He also urged industrialists and philanthropists to contribute to the unique sanitation drive by directly sponsoring tools like push carts, vehicles etc.

Superintendent of Police, Guntur Urban, Ake Ravikrishna, Municipal Commissioner (I/C) P. Srinivasulu, Deputy Commissioner Abdul Latif, Municipal Health Officer Sridhar were present.

 
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