The Times of India 28.05.2010
‘Dismal’ JMC board completes 6 months
JAIPUR: The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) board on Thursday completed six months in office. However, if performance of the board is to be taken into account, it shows a dismal figure.
A directly elected mayor from Congress, Jyoti Khandelwal , and the board with BJP majority have wasted time which could have been used for constructive purposes . As per the records neither routine sanitation work nor any development project had seen the light of day in the past six months.
The budget outlay for the JMC is Rs 800 crore. However, the civic body is under a debt trap of Rs 425 crore. Many wonder how the corporation will survive. Moreover, the mayor had promised to start a new solid waste management programme under which collection of garbage and its transportation would be done on a priority basis. It is waiting for the nod of the House for the last four months. Energy saving projects under which the city would have CFL lighting also has not seen the light of the day.
A JMC official said the revenue collection for the year has not been 50% of the target and the government has also not promised to give any grant. At present, things look gloomy. Over Rs 30 crore remains to be paid to the contractors looking after heritage properties and they would not resume duty unless paid. As a result of this deadlock, no new tenders for new or old projects have been rolled out. Many renovation work in the Walled City has been stuck since last year, he said.
Moreover, the BJP-Congress spat, both in the House and outside, has affected development work. Balance of power between the Congress and BJP and greed of grabbing chairmanship of various committees have dominated the deliberations in the last three sadharan sabha meetings and issues like sanitation , solid waste management , green cover, drinking water, street lights and roads have taken a backseat.
Independent councillor Sushil Sharma asked both the mayor Jyoti Khandelwal and her deputy Manish Pareek how they foresee the Jaipur ever becoming a world-class city. He asked, “If we behave like this, then Jaipur would acquire the distinction of being the third-class city,” The statement get credence from the fact that both the camps failed to resolve the deadlock and the city suffers the most.
A directly elected mayor from Congress, Jyoti Khandelwal , and the board with BJP majority have wasted time which could have been used for constructive purposes . As per the records neither routine sanitation work nor any development project had seen the light of day in the past six months.
The budget outlay for the JMC is Rs 800 crore. However, the civic body is under a debt trap of Rs 425 crore. Many wonder how the corporation will survive. Moreover, the mayor had promised to start a new solid waste management programme under which collection of garbage and its transportation would be done on a priority basis. It is waiting for the nod of the House for the last four months. Energy saving projects under which the city would have CFL lighting also has not seen the light of the day.
A JMC official said the revenue collection for the year has not been 50% of the target and the government has also not promised to give any grant. At present, things look gloomy. Over Rs 30 crore remains to be paid to the contractors looking after heritage properties and they would not resume duty unless paid. As a result of this deadlock, no new tenders for new or old projects have been rolled out. Many renovation work in the Walled City has been stuck since last year, he said.
Moreover, the BJP-Congress spat, both in the House and outside, has affected development work. Balance of power between the Congress and BJP and greed of grabbing chairmanship of various committees have dominated the deliberations in the last three sadharan sabha meetings and issues like sanitation , solid waste management , green cover, drinking water, street lights and roads have taken a backseat.
Independent councillor Sushil Sharma asked both the mayor Jyoti Khandelwal and her deputy Manish Pareek how they foresee the Jaipur ever becoming a world-class city. He asked, “If we behave like this, then Jaipur would acquire the distinction of being the third-class city,” The statement get credence from the fact that both the camps failed to resolve the deadlock and the city suffers the most.
