Urban News

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
India Newspapers

Kollam gets Rs. 20.3-crore project for slum clearance

Friday, 19 September 2014 05:46 administrator
Print PDF

The Hindu      19.09.2014  

Kollam gets Rs. 20.3-crore project for slum clearance

RAY pilot scheme at SMP Palace colony

The pilot scheme of the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) in the State will be implemented in Kollam city. The technical sanction for this was obtained on Tuesday. The Centrally sponsored scheme aims at creating slum-free cities. The pilot project will be implemented at the SMP Palace slum colony.

Mayor Prasanna Earnest told press persons on Thursday that it will be a Rs. 20.30 crore project. Fifty per cent of the amount will be funded by the Centre, 30 per cent by the State government and the remaining 20 per cent equally shared by the Kollam City Corporation and the beneficiaries. One hundred and ninety-five families at the pilot scheme colony will be benefitted. Two room kitchen apartments in eight-storey blocks will be constructed. Under the second phase 25 slums in Kollam city will be covered by RAY. Ms. Earnest said that Rs.500 crore will be obtained as grant from the Centre.

Meeting planned

A meeting between the stakeholders and consultant of the scheme will be held at 3 p.m. on October 10 at the Municipal Council hall, she said.

While the Pullikada slum colony had the top priority of the Corporation to implement the scheme, the property where the slum stands is still under the ownership of the Railways. RAY stipulates that the scheme will be implemented only on land owned by city Corporations.

In August 2011, Kollam became the first city in the State to complete the basic formalities to implement the RAY scheme. In 2013, the detailed project report was prepared by the Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development (Costford) and on May 13, the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee gave the green signal for the scheme.

 

VMC abolishes manual collection of house tax

Wednesday, 17 September 2014 06:36 administrator
Print PDF

The Times of India      17.09.2014 

VMC abolishes manual collection of house tax

 

Varanasi: Taking a step towards paperless office, Varanasi Municipal Corporation had taken an initiative to bring its property and taxation department online.

"We have abolished 100% manually collection of house tax. The inspectors equipped with spot billing machine (SBM) go to the houses to collect tax. Around 20% of people are paying house tax bills online," Sandeep Srivastava of computer coordinator cell of VMC. The SBM service has been started from September 2 and till September15, as many as 1,119 people paid their house tax through this service, he said. VMC was first in Uttar Pradesh to begin online portal for paying tax in 2009.

In the current financial year from April to September 15, as many as 330 people had deposited house tax worth Rs 3.78 lakh online. The department has established computerised centres for paying tax in Bhelupura, Dashashwmedh, Kotwali, Adampura and trans-Varuna zones with the headquarters at VMC. People are free to pay bills anywhere at these six places.

A tax payer said: "The computerised system is bringing transparency in the system, which gives a feeling of satisfaction." E-services has brought more transparency in the department as till 2009, VMC used to collect only Rs 7 crores to Rs 8 crores as tax but using e-services, the amount reached above Rs 22 crores annually.

VMC is also gearing up to provide death and birth certificates of individuals on the spot in hospitals. The process is in its last stage as the software of incurring digital signature of people into the computer system has been stocked at NIC in Lucknow. For experiment, ten hospitals including government and private nursing homes, are to be connected with main computer system that would be located in VMC. 

 

Meeting at VDA to discuss city’s makeover today

Wednesday, 17 September 2014 06:31 administrator
Print PDF

The Times of India        17.09.2014  

Meeting at VDA to discuss city’s makeover today

 

Varanasi: For urban makeover of Modi's Banaras a three-day meeting will be held at Varanasi Development Authority from Wednesday. The meeting has been called to discuss various issues to be incorporated in new city development plan under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Now, a revised City Development Plan (CDP) will be prepared for the implementation of development works under JNNURM. According to environment officer under JNNURM, Shailendra Tripathi, besides the civic problems like drainage, sewage, transportation, development of urban poor, the issues of heritage, tourism, water conservation, energy saving, encroachments, greenery upgradation, purification of ponds, smart traffic system, beautification of parks and renovation of buildings will also be discussed during the meeting. According to Tripathi, all the components relating to city's development have been categorized into different categories.

The meeting will be attended by members of CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory and members from Capacity Building of Urban Development (CBUD), an intensive unit of Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) along with the officials of government agencies, educational experts, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other stakeholders. CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory's team of urban sector experts, who tied up with the MoUD, have been mandated by MoUD to appraise reforms under the JNNURM programme.

The old CDP was prepared in 2007 but as per the guidelines of Government of India in 2011, there is a need of revised CDP, Tripathi added. 

 
More Articles...


Page 205 of 4907