The Times of India   08.09.2010

GHMC plans to rejig municipal circles

HYDERABAD: Residents of a colony in Yapral municipal division recently petitioned their corporator for a road to connect to the main road. The corporator instead asked them in which municipal circle jurisdiction does their colony fall? They were shocked, but a part of the Yapral municipal division is under the jurisdiction of the Alwal circle and the rest in Kapra circle. Interestingly, Yapral municipal division is the only ward among 150 municipal divisions which is spread in two municipal circles.

GHMC officials from both municipal circles have been attending the Yapral ward committee meetings for the past few months.

Even three years after formation of Greater Hyderabad, restructuring of circles has not been taken up by the government. During the merger of surrounding municipalities like Alwal, Kapra, Kukatpally, Patancheru, L B Nagar and Rajendranagar, the officials directly created municipal circles as it is formed except L B Nagar, where Gaddiannaram and L B Nagar civic bodies were merged.

There is an anomaly in the division of municipal circle. For instance, there are only two municipal divisions __ Gachibowli and Serlingampally __ in the Serilingampally circle. Similarly, there are only two wards in Patancheru, three in Uppal and four in Kapra and two-and-half divisions in Alwal circle.

On the other hand, there 25 municipal wards in circle 4, which covers half of the Old City, and 16 wards in circle 5, which covers the rest of the Old City.

"While there is heavy workload on some circles, there is absolutely no work in some circles due to uneven distribution of wards. However, the staff for each circle is same and no additional staff has been given to the heavily burdened circles," a senior official admitted.

As a result of this, residents of various colonies have been suffering due to abnormal delay in delivering services, the official added.

The issue of uneven distribution of wards to municipal circles came up during the GHMC standing committee meeting a week ago. Mayor Banda Karthika Reddy reportedly told the officials that there was no proper distribution of work at circle level. She reportedly suggested to take the Assembly segment as a unit for circle and create 24 municipal circles (adding six to existing 18 circles).

"There is confusion after decentralisation of powers. Zonal commissioners have been given more powers empowering the basic municipal circles for serving the people," an additional commissioner said.

After discussion in the standing committee meeting, the GHMC has decided to reorganise the municipal circles with the permission of the government.

"We have sent a proposal on restructuring of municipal circles under the chairmanship of former director of Director Municipal Administration ( DMA) M Prasada Rao to the municipal administration and urban development department a couple of days ago," GHMC joint commissioner (Admn) P Sai Kumar said.

The Times of India  08.09.2010

PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) took a step further towards energy and environment conservation with its plans to give green rating' to new buildings.

Municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma said, "We have decided to adopt the guidelines laid won by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, for rating green buildings. A meeting will be held with developers and builders to know their views on the proposal."

The buildings will be given ratings on the scale of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, depending upon the number of eco-friendly measures taken. Sharma said, "The developers will get concessions in premium charges paid to the PCMC while residents of green buildings will be given rebate in property tax. We may offer some more sops to encourage builders take up such projects."

Enlisting some basic requirements of green buildings, Pathan Ayubkhan, executive engineer with the environmental cell of the PCMC, said, "The buildings should be made of natural and eco-friendly resources; adequate use of natural light and ventilation is must to reduce consumption of electricity; flyash bricks be used for construction; no waste be released into the environment."

On the importance of recycled water, he said, "An individual needs not more than 45 litres of fresh water for bathing, cooking and drinking purposes collectively. If recycled water is used for other purposes, usage of fresh water and expenditure on purification process can be slashed significantly."

The Pimpri-Chinchwad township, predominantly an industrial hub, got a municipal corporation in 1982. The population of the twin township was around one lakh then, which has now gone up to 15 lakh.

"The township has seen tremendous development in the past three decades with areas like Moshi, Wakad, Pimple Gurav, Pimple Nilakh and Pimple Saudagar developing into urban centres. Construction of green buildings will help reduce impact of rapid urbanisation on environment," said Pathan.