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MMC passes resolution on wards delimitation

Thursday, 13 February 2014 09:34 administrator
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The Times of India             13.02.2014

MMC passes resolution on wards delimitation

MARGAO: Noisy and chaotic scenes were witnessed at a meeting of the Margao municipal council (MMC) on Wednesday after the 20-odd councillors were upset as they alleged that they were not taken into confidence on what would be discussed at the meeting.

The key outcome of the meeting was that a resolution was passed by the councillors for delimitation of the MMC wards. The aim of undertaking the delimitation process is to ensure that the population will be evenly divided across all the wards.

The councillors want that this resolution should be forwarded to the director of municipal administration by the chief officer Deepali Naik.

The councillors have also passed a resolution to increase the number of wards so as to have a minimum of 2,500 voters in each ward.

This is not the first time that the issue of delimitation and increasing the number of wards has been raised by the civic body, and sources said that the delimitation exercise, if undertaken, is likely to increase the number of wards from the current 20 to at least 25.

Later, chief officer Naik, speaking to TOI, explained that the proposal stems from the observation that there is considerable disparity in the population in the wards which affects the development works. "Whenever funds are allotted to the wards for development works, the wards with less population are likely to benefit more than the ones with large population. The revised demarcation of wards based on current population will address those anomalies," Naik said.

Earlier, during the meeting, there was a heated discussion between councillor Joseph Vaz and MMC chairperson Dayanand Deulkar, where Vaz alleged that certain encroachments near a chapel in Margao had the support of the chairperson. The allegations were denied by Deulkar.

Discussions were also held on the Goa regulation of land development and building construction Act 2008 and Naik stated that she would seek legal opinion on how to go about its implementation, while adding that the DMA had already issued directions for its immediate implementation.

Naik also directed all councillors to submit relevant details of pet owners in their wards and to offer full cooperation for the Mission Rabies campaign by the MMC who in collaboration with International Animal Rescue (IAR) will soon undertake an anti-rabies mission in Margao.

 

Mosquitos not the only city insects that bite, says AMC

Thursday, 13 February 2014 09:33 administrator
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The Times of India             13.02.2014

Mosquitos not the only city insects that bite, says AMC

AHMEDABAD: Those irritating pink itchy bumps on your arm and foot may not be just caused by the stinging mosquito alone. Health officials claim that a large number of insects, like culex mosquitoes Culicoides, which are biting midges and show a stark resemblance to mosquitoes and white flies, have literally outnumbered disease-causing mosquitoes. The disease-causing female anopheles mosquito causes malaria and falciparum and Aedes aegypti causes chikungunya and dengue.

Early January till late February sees a literal explosion in the number of the Culicoides and white flies, which then disappear by the onset of summer. "Many mistake these nuisance biting insects for mosquitoes. Culicoides for instance does look like a mosquito but it's the brown spots on its wings and small mouth that distinguishes itself from the regular mosquitoes. In winter, malarial and dengue-causing mosquitoes are least active. They need a particular temperature to proliferate and be active," explains a senior health official in AMC.

In January this year, Gomtipur for instance, the mosquito density per room was calculated to be 10.25-all of these was culex mosquito which is not a vector for malaria, dengue or Chikungunya. In Sabarmati ward, if the insect density was 7.25 per room, 5 of those mosquitoes were culex and only one was the dengue-causing Aedes aegypti. In the following month in areas like Jamalpur if there were 13.5 insects per room, 12 were culex.

White flies, according to the health official, are found in huge numbers wherever there is dense vegetation like in Shahibaugh or near fields that grow castor or cabbage or other leafy vegetables near water bodies.

Areas like Sabarmati, Jamalpur, Lambha, Naroda Muthiya, Amraiwadi, Khokhra, Sarkhej and Kankaria are already seeing a large number of these insects.

"Our advice to residents in these high-density nuisance insect areas, is to use repellants and throw out water stored for more than two or three days. We have started surveillance activities in various wards before the next cycle of mosquito-related diseases begin," adds the AMC health official.

 

NDMC prepares to redevelop Khan Market

Thursday, 13 February 2014 09:28 administrator
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The Times of India             13.02.2014

NDMC prepares to redevelop Khan Market

NEW DELHI: After Connaught Place and Palika Bazaar, New Delhi Municipal Council has turned its attention to Gole Market, INA-Dilli Haat, Khan Market and Sarojini Nagar Market in the new financial year. Presenting the budget for financial year 2014-15, NDMC chairman Jalaj Srivastava said there is an urgent need to decongest these markets and redevelopment plans are on anvil.

As per the initial plan, the civic agency will construct an underground car corridor around these markets to address the growing parking requirement. The markets will have common air-conditioning units, uniform facade and more space for pedestrians. While work on Khan Market redevelopment plan will start soon, the civic agency will hire consultants to prepare a redevelopment plan for three markets.

"These markets have high footfall. But the parking space is inadequate. Now, we have to upgrade the infrastructure to meet the growing needs of the areas. The underground car corridors will provide a solution to the parking problem. We will identify parking sites in and around these markets and connect them through the car corridors," said Srivastava.

While it is planning new projects to address the parking problem, the civic agency admits that the two multi-storeyed automated parking lots in Sarojini Nagar and Baba Kharak Singh Marg have not been "complete success stories". "We need to encourage people to use these parking lots. It is not a complete success as people prefer surface level parking," said Srivastava.

For long, traders have been demanding that the civic agency start a feeder service between the parking lot and Connaught Place. But the civic agency has no immediate plan to start feeder bus service.

To improve sanitation in NDMC areas, the civic agency will start a door-to-door waste collection facility. "We will construct state-of-the-art transfer stations so that waste is dumped here first. It will be transported to the landfill site during night time. We plan to do away with dhalaos. Existing dhalaos in the area will be converted into public toilets," said Srivastava.

Officials say the main focus in the next financial year will be on augmenting existing services ranging from water and power to sanitation. It has allocated close to Rs 1,600 crore just for redevelopment and upgrade of existing amenities. The civic agency is also set to implement its round-the-clock water supply scheme. The Rs 153-crore project has been approved by the Council and work will start shortly.

 
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