Towns and Cities

Funds allocated for giving bicycles to students

Thursday, 13 February 2014 09:59 administrator

The Times of India 13.02.2014

Funds allocated for giving bicycles to students

PUNE: After a long hiatus, the proposal to give bicycles to students of Pune Municipal Corporation-run secondary schools was approved at the standing committee on Tuesday.

The civic body had announced a scheme in early 2013 to provide free bicycles to students from class VII to X. It had also made a provision of Rs 1 crore for the same in the budget.

After the proposal is approved, students can expect to get the bicycles by March. However, students who receive these bicycles will not be able to avail of the free travel facility by PMPML buses.

The distributor selected by the civic body will provide the bicycles for Rs 3,520 each, alongwith tyres, tubes and chains bearing the ISI mark. Further maintenance of the bicycles will also be undertaken by the distributor.

The civic body runs 25 high schools in the city, with 11,090 students on the rolls. As many as 2,522 secondary school students in PMC-run schools have registered for the scheme. PMC education officials have completed the scrutiny of these students (1,311 boys and 1,211 girls), who will receive bicycles in the first phase of the project.

The urban community development department of the PMC has also asked for an additional 556 cycles, taking the total demand up to 3,078 cycles. The total expense have now reached Rs 1.08 crore, but as the budget allocation is Rs 1 crore, only 2,840 cycles will be procured.

According to the Comprehensive Transport Policy (CTP) of the PMC, about 37% people walk to their destinations and 18% use bicycles in the city everyday.

Civic body to home deliver birth certificates free of charge

Thursday, 13 February 2014 04:49 administrator

The Hindu 13.02.2014

Civic body to home deliver birth certificates free of charge

Damini Nath

Couples who live in East Delhi and are expecting babies after April 1 will have one less thing to worry about. Birth certificates for babies born at district hospitals will be sent to the parents by the civic body through speed-post or courier, that too free of charge.

The announcement was made by East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) Commissioner S. Kumaraswamy on Wednesday during the finalisation of the EDMC Budget for the next financial year. Currently, getting birth certificates involves standing in long lines at the municipal corporation’s office. The home delivery of birth certificates is expected to make the procedure much easier for new parents.

“Lots of people have to face problems — long queues and the chance of corruption. This move will make the system transparent,” said EDMC spokesperson Y.S. Mann.

The civic body plans to implement this scheme beginning the next financial year with a Budget allocation of Rs.60 lakh for the project. It will cover births in both government-run and private hospitals within the EDMC’s jurisdiction.

“We will collect data from hospitals on all institutional births like the parents’ names and address,” he said, adding that the hospitals will have to upload the details of all births onto the civic body’s central server. The civic body will also start dedicated windows at both the EDMC zones — Shahdara East and West — to add names to birth certificates within half-an-hour.

According to the Budget, the EDMC generated Rs.1,295.64 crore in income in 2012-2013. The proposed income for the next fiscal has been increased to Rs.2,067.97 crore. The corporation’s proposed expenditure for 2014-15 has been increased to Rs.2,232.80 crore from Rs.1,042.31 crore in 2012-2013.

GHMC Gears Up for Metropolis Congress

Wednesday, 12 February 2014 11:31 administrator

The New Indian Express 12.02.2014

A delegation from Metropolis, Barcelona held discussions with the GHMC authorities on the arrangements being made for the prestigious XI Metropolis World Congress-2014 to be held at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) in Hyderabad from October 7 to 10.

The Metropolis team expressed satisfaction with the arrangements made by the GHMC.

Speaking to reporters here today, secretary general of Metropolis, Barcelona, Alain Lesaus, Country Director, Metropolis, Sydney, Sunil Dubey, International Manager, Metropolis, Barcelona, Agnes Bickart, Project Officer, Metropolis, Barcelona, Teresa Oliver and Regional Manager, Asia, Cities Alliance, Brussels, D. Ajay Suri along with Mayor M Majid Hussain and GHMC commissioner Somesh Kumar said that they were satisfied with the arrangements being made by the corporation and hoped that the congress would be a grand success.

It is for the first time that the Metropolis is being organised in South Asia. The theme for the congress is ‘Cities for All’. As many as 2,000 representatives from 136 cities from all over the world would participate the Metropolis to exchange ideas and developments taking place in the cities. Exchange programmes for making the youth lives better in short and long terms would be prepared for the youth development, Allen said.

Mayor said that the GHMC is making arrangements for the grand success of the Metropolis conference and a sum of Rs 100 crore will be spent for creating infrastructure and Rs 300 crore for road development plan. The GHMC has earmarked Rs 7 crore for making preparatory arrangements.

He reminded that Hyderabad has successfully conducted Conference of Parties (CoP) in 2012 and has brought laurels to the city.

Earlier, the delegation called on municipal administration minister M. Maheedhar Reddy.

The team also called on principal secretaries of MAUD Sameer Sarma and SK Joshi.

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