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Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation to start CNG-run pet incinerator at Pimpri

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The Times of India   13.08.2012

Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation to start CNG-run pet incinerator at Pimpri

PUNE: The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) will install a CNG-run pet incinerator at Nehrunagar in Pimpri to help overcome the space constraint at its pet cemetery in Pimpri. The civic administration has forwarded a proposal to the civic standing committee seeking approval for the construction and commissioning of the incinerator at a cost of Rs 38 lakh.

PCMC veterinary office Satish Gore said, "The incinerator will be installed on 5,000 sq ft area of the pet cemetery. The PCMC would want to run it on the public-private partnership model. The contractor who will install the incinerator will operate it for a year."

The incinerator will be for cremation of small pet animals like birds, dogs, cats, rabbits, sheep, goats and other fancy pets. "We will also allow pet calves (young cows) to be cremated. The minimum charges for cremation will be Rs 300 and maximum Rs 700, depending on the size and weight of the animal," Gore said. The civic body already runs a pet cemetery in Nehrunagar over a plot of 20,000 sq ft. It was inaugurated in March 2007.

Explaining the need for the incinerator, Gore said, "We had reserved 5,000 sq.ft land at the cemetery for incinerator. We have almost used up the remaining land for pet burials. So, there was a need for installing an incinerator to cremate the pet due to the paucity of burial space."

Dogs form a majority in types of pets buried in the cemetery. "A total of 1,850 pets have been buried there till now," said Gore.

Last Updated on Monday, 13 August 2012 07:50
 

Each civic body looks for own set of lawyers

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The Indian Express    11.08.2012

Each civic body looks for own set of lawyers

In the absence of lawyers assigned to civic agencies, the East and South corporations have called in applications from senior advocates to represent them.

According to officials, a number of cases are pending in the Supreme Court and High Court. Lawyers representing the monolithic Municipal Corporation of Delhi do not know which of the three civic bodies they are now supposed to represent.

“It becomes problematic for lawyers who appeared for the unified civic agency. We may take different stands on one issue and thus lawyers dedicated to our corporation. Moreover, it will settle the issue of who would pay the lawyers. No civic agency wants to pay in a case involving all three agencies,” said a senior South corporation official.

East and South corporations have invited applications from advocates for an initial period of one year. The posts for which the applications have been called are Standing Counsel (Supreme Court), Additional Standing Counsel (Supreme Court), Advocate-on-Record (Supreme Court), Standing Counsel (High Court) and CAT, Additional Standing Counsel (High Court) and CAT, Panel Advocates (High Court), CAT. The selection committee will take applications till August 16.

The selected advocates will have to submit an undertaking stating that they will not represent the other two corporations.“Our lawyers will not appear against South corporation and North corporation in any court matters till they are on our panel,” said a senior East corporation official.

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 August 2012 09:38
 

Hubli Dharwad Municipal Corporation-run info kiosks are a dud

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The Times of India   11.08.2012

Hubli Dharwad Municipal Corporation-run info kiosks are a dud

HUBLI: The setting up of kiosks to disseminate information about civic services and about north Karnataka has failed to serve the purpose.

HDMC had in 2008-09 installed kiosks at prime locations to keep the common man informed about the twin cities and north Karnataka, its services and facilities, nearby tourist places (complete with map).

It cost Rs 8.61 lakh for the civic body to install seven kiosks at airport, the commissioner's office in Hubli and Dharwad, and its zonal offices. But most of them are defunct in the last eight months. Reason: no update of info in the last two years.

Data needing updations include the names of officers of various departments, list of zonal officers, services relating to tax, revenue and other departments, water tariff, property tax, contact numbers of departments, the names of elected representatives."Lack of updations has prompted HDMC to stop the service of kiosks," said a zonal officer, on condition of anonymity.

"We get disturbed while working when people repeatedly ask about updated information at the kiosks set up at our zonal offices. We thought of stopping the functioning of kiosks as the data has not been updated in the last two years. But we will resume their services once the data is updated," he added.

When contacted, mayor Pandurang Patil said the work of updating has been outsourced to a Bangalore-based IT company."We have asked them to keep all the kiosks updated. But it is not happening. I will remind them about this so that updation is done at the earliest," he added.

"According to the data in kiosks, Venkatesh Mestri is still the mayor, even though his term has ended two years ago. Also, the contacts of many offices and the names of officers are wrong. HDMC should update the data for the benefit of people," said Guru Joshi, a businessman, highlighting the urgency to do the same.
Last Updated on Saturday, 11 August 2012 08:57
 


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