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Civic body to review, overhaul its disaster management programme

Thursday, 09 October 2014 11:57 administrator
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The Times of India        09.10.2014   

Civic body to review, overhaul its disaster management programme

 

NAVI MUMBAI: The civic body has chalked out a three-phase programme to review its disaster management plan. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation's (NMMC) disaster management cell has also made plans to conduct a year-long study on how well the city is equipped to handle any hazard as well as its impact on the society.

In the first phase, the disaster management plan will be reviewed by Tata Institute of Social Sciences. "The institute will be reviewing the steps taken by the civic body in any disaster. It will study in detail the impact of various disasters on the city and the different actions taken by the disaster management team to deal with it," said a senior official from the disaster management cell.

The institute is expected to conduct its study specifically on the impacts of nine disasters such as earthquakes, floods, dilapidated building collapse, chemical accidents, tsunami, riots and landslides. Work on the month-long project has already started.

The cell will be updated about any new course of action to be implemented and ways to better its ways of functioning.

The second and third phases will be a study of how vulnerable the city is to any hazard and its social impact. "This will be a year-long process where we will test the infrastructure's vulnerability to hazards such as earthquakes with the help of simulation techniques. A decision will be taken at the earliest," added the official.

J Sinnarkar, in-charge of disaster management department, said that they are engaged in lot of activities. "Reviewing the disaster management plans is one of the processes," he added.

 

NMC links BCC with property tax to boost revenue

Thursday, 09 October 2014 11:55 administrator
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The Times of India        09.10.2014  

NMC links BCC with property tax to boost revenue

 

NASHIK: After linking property tax with the Building Completion Certificate (BCC), the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has added 1,790 new property-holders to the list of the property tax payers in the first half (April 1 to September 30) of the 2014-15 financial year.

With an aim to increase the revenue through property tax, the civic administration has taken some measures for the purpose. As part of this, the NMC connected both the town planning and the property tax departments to share information of BCC last year. Accordingly, the town planning department immediately informed the property tax department to give BCC to any building in the municipal limit. As a result, the municipal corporation has added new property holders on its list of property tax payers at large.

Speaking to TOI, "As per the norms, the property-holders have to pay property tax once they get the BCC from the town planning department of NMC. Hence, we have linked the BCC with the property tax from the current financial year. This has helped us charge the property tax from the newly constructed buildings once we get information of BCC from the town planning department. In the first half of 2014-15, we added 1,790 properties to the property tax list."

By March 31, there were 1.79 lakh properties on the property tax list. With the new addition of 1,790 properties in the first half of the current financial year, the total number of properties has reached 3,80,790. This included 73,183 properties in Nashik East, 35,645 in Nashik West, 77,999 in Panchavati, 66,446 in Nashik Road, 40,530 in Satpur, 86,987 properties in the Cidco division of the municipal corporation.

The NMC has set property tax collection target of Rs 110 crore for the current fiscal year and collected Rs 36 crore in the first half of the current financial year. Last financial year (2013-14), the NMC had collected property tax of Rs 71.74 crore. 

 

State master plan for solid waste disposal

Thursday, 09 October 2014 10:18 administrator
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The Times of India         09.10.2014    

State master plan for solid waste disposal

 

GURGAON: The state urban local bodies department has sought inputs from 78 state municipal bodies, including MCG, to prepare a state-level master plan for an integrated solid waste management system, to be reviewed and approved by the National Green Tribunal.

Officials say most existing solid waste treatment plants do not meet WHO pollution norms. The state government has already hired a consultant to advise it on the technology to be used to treat solid waste and the manpower and vehicles needed for it.

A senior MCG official said the urban local bodies department has asked all Haryana's 78 municipal bodies to provide information on the amounts of garbage they generate and methods they use to treat them. "Gurgaon, Faridabad and Panchkula generate maximum garbage, though Gurgaon and Faridabad don't have the means to dispose it. For the past year, the treatment plant here has been non-functional," senior MCG official added.

"About 500 tonnes of garbage is generated daily in Gurgaon. At present we simply dump it in the landfill inside Bandhwari treatment plant," said the official.

 
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