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GVMC wards up from 72 to 81

Thursday, 17 August 2017 07:18 administrator
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The Hindu        17.08.2017 

GVMC wards up from 72 to 81

An aerial view of Bheemunipatnam, which has been merged in the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation.K.R. DeepakK_R_DEEPAK  

Population as per 2011 Census after merger of Anakapalle, Bheemili put at 18,81,686

In what is seen as the first step towards holding the much-delayed elections to the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, the State government has issued a GO fixing the number of wards at 81.

GO issued

The GO issued on Wednesday by the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department takes the population of GVMC according to 2011 census and those of Anakapalle, Bheemunipatnam and five gram panchayats merged in GVMC together for fixing the wards at 81. GVMC presently comprises 72 wards.

As per 2011 census, the population of GVMC is 17,30,320, Anakapalle 86,612, Bheemunipatnam 54,865 and five gram panchayats 9,889 taking the total to 18,81,686.

Based on a proposal submitted by the Commissioner, GVMC, the GO fixes 63 wards for the first 10,00,000 population and 18 for the remaining at the rate of 50,000 for each ward.

“With the GO issued, wards have to be formed by considering the natural and geographical boundaries,” said sources in GVMC.

“Further instructions will come from the Director (Municipal Administration) based on which we will go ahead,” Municipal Commissioner M Hari Narayanan said.

However, the fixing of boundaries by following the due process after the government issues orders will take a few months. After that reservation of wards has to be done. All this will take a few months of time, says former MLA Tyanala Vijaya Kumar who was a corporator before being elected to the Assembly.

Elections were last held in 2007 after forming GVMC merging the outskirts and taking the number of wards from 50 to 72.

In July 2013, the government issued orders merging Anakapalle, Bheemunipatnam and the 10 gram panchayats in GVMC.

Cases filed in High Court opposing the merger of Bheemunipatnam are still pending. However, elections were held to the five panchayats in Bheemili mandal following a court order.

 

Corpn to collect data on high-rises

Thursday, 17 August 2017 07:12 administrator
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The Hindu        17.08.2017 

Corpn to collect data on high-rises

The measure will help the civic body to crack down on violations more effectively

The Corporation is set for a detailed data collection exercise on high-rise buildings in the city that have more than four storeys.

The local body has in recent years been receiving several complaints regarding flats constructed in violation of the original building permit that it had granted.

These complaints have mostly come from customers struggling to get TC numbers and other public utility connections due to the violations committed by the real estate companies.

The decision regarding data collection was taken at a steering committee meeting held earlier this week. According to officials here, the data will enable the Corporation to crack down more effectively on violations.

“We have been constantly receiving complaints from several customers who had bought individual units in various flats in the city. The real estate companies usually get building permit citing certain number of floors and a certain parking area, but later carry out the construction violating these conditions. In such cases, TC numbers cannot be provided. But, the issue here is that, it is the customers who suffer, rather than the real estate company, as they would have got all the money in advance,” Mayor V.K. Prashanth said.

Lack of monitoring

The lack of a system to constantly monitor whether the building permit conditions were being followed in construction and at later stages also needs to be addressed, he said.

According to Town Planning Committee Standing Committee Chairman R. Satheesh Kumar, the Corporation is insisting on flats having facilities for waste management and rainwater harvesting and safety measures including proper setback, before providing occupancy certificates.

“In case of such violations, we are unable to provide TC number, because of which we cannot do building tax assessment also. One way is to regularise them with an ‘Unauthorised’ TC number, with a tax three times a high as the normal rates. We will look into all the violations during the data collection and take the necessary action after that. Though we have records of all building permits issued from here, we do not have separate data on high-rises. The data collection will be done on a zonal basis,” he said.

  • Local body has in recent years been receiving complaints
  • Plaints are from customers struggling to get TC numbers
 

Survey storm-water drains before taking up clearance drive: Mayor

Thursday, 17 August 2017 06:28 administrator
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The Hindu        17.08.2017  

Survey storm-water drains before taking up clearance drive: Mayor

Congress councillor Ganesh Tagargunti raising a point during the monthly council meeting of Hubballi Dharwad Municipal Corporation in Hubballi on Wednesday.Kiran Bakale  

‘Authorities being partisan’ rocks Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Council meeting

Allegations of authorities being partisan while clearing encroachments over storm-water drains and parks rocked the municipal council meeting here on Wednesday with some disgruntled Congress councillors upset with the municipal commissioner, using the opportunity to make a veiled attack on him.

After the issue was raised by Congress councillor Ganesh Tagargunti, who has been vocal in his criticism of municipal commissioner Major Siddalingayya Hiremath, several other Congress councillors joined him in accusing the authorities of being selective in their drive against encroachments.

However, the prolonged discussion on the issue ultimately ended with a resolution directing the commissioner to clear to all encroachments without any leniency.

During the discussion on the calling attention motion moved by Mr. Tagargunti, the officials failed to provide proper information on the clearance drive and sought time, which angered the councillors. An official of the Town Planning Department clarified that they had no records related to storm-water drains as they were with the Revenue Department.

His reply angered the Congress councillors further, who were waiting to target the municipal commissioner for his recent bold step of demolishing a structure being built by a government department for which the local MLA had performed bhoomi puja. They pointed out that no action had been taken up to clear structures that had come up encroaching upon the storm-water drains. Mr. Tagargunti sought to know how the commissioner was kept in the dark until the construction of the illegal structure was completed up to the ceiling level. He also questioned Mayor D.K. Chavan giving a requisition for construction of a structure on land meant for a park. Although the Mayor admitted his mistake, he said that the corporation never gave permission for the construction.

Responding to the allegations, Major Hiremath clarified that since the department concerned had gone ahead with the construction despite several warnings by the corporation, they were left with no option other than demolishing it as the structure was being built in violation of rules.

The council subsequently discussed the issue of encroachments over storm-water drains and gardens. And ultimately Mr. Chavan issued a ruling directing the officials to conduct survey of storm-water drains with the help of officials of the Department of Survey and Land Records before taking up the clearance drive.

 
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