The Hindu   08.08.2012

New water-logging helpline

The Delhi Government has set up a centralised control room to deal with reports of water-logging in the Capital under which complaints about it on telephone number 011-23490323 will be addressed with 30 minutes of receiving them.

The Government revealed this information in an affidavit which it is likely to file in the Delhi High Court on Wednesday.

It has made this submission in response to a public interest litigation by non-government organisation Antarrashtriya Manav Adhikar Nigrani Parishad seeking directions to the agencies concerned to deal with water-logging in the Capital.

The affidavit further said that it had received from the Delhi Traffic Police a list of vulnerable points which were considered prone to water-logging for de-silting and cleaning of drains and making available water pumps.

Meanwhile, in a related matter, a Division Bench of the Court directed the Capital’s municipal bodies to file status reports within a week about the steps taken by them to de-silt drains to prevent water-logging during the monsoon.

A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Vipin Sanghi passed the direction on a petition by a non-government organisation seeking contempt of court proceedings against officers of the civic bodies for their alleged violation of the July 11 order of the Court asking them to file status reports about the steps they had taken for de-silting drains to prevent water-logging.

The petitioner Nyaya Bhoomi submitted that the civic bodies had taken no steps to de-silt drains and neither had they filed status reports as directed by the Court.

The Hindu   08.08.2012

Officials told to expedite work on water supply schemes

Officials of the zilla panchayat engineering division have come under the scanner for not expediting drinking water supply schemes.

At a monthly meeting held here on Tuesday, the zilla panchayat members and Chief Executive Officer P.A. Meghannavar took the engineers to task for delay in executing the drinking water supply schemes under the task force project, even as the district was facing drought.

Criticising the attitude of the engineers, Mr. Meghannavar said that of the Rs. 4.90 crore released under the task force project, the officials spent Rs. 3.6 crore. Of the 256 works under this project, 57 were under different stages of construction and 27 were yet to start. The officials have not uploaded the information of expenditure on the website, he said.

Mr. Meghannavar instructed officials to take up the works on priority.

Referring to complaints about the district receiving less amount of crop insurance, he said the officials of the Department of Agriculture and Department of Statistics had not provided information to the government. Officials of these departments should form a team and collect data of crop loss and make sure farmers receive maximum possible benefits, he said.

Mr. Meghannavar instructed the panchayat development officers and executive officers of the taluk panchayats to be accessible to people in their respective jurisdictions. People in rural areas should be given jobs under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) , he said.

Regarding delay in clearing medical reimbursement bills, Mr. Meghannavar said that no reimbursement bills should be kept pending for more than three days at the zilla panchayat.

Raising the drought issue, Amrut Desai, ZP member, demanded a special package for drought-hit farmers. The government should give compensation of Rs. 1 lakh per hectare to all farmers. The legislators should take up the issue with the government, he said. However, the meeting failed to pass any resolution in this regard.

The zilla panchayat members said they would donate their salary for two months towards the drought relief fund.