The Hindu              12.02.2014

Infrastructure gets focus in municipality budget

Staff Reporter

Rs.12.24-crore surplus budget presented for 2014-15 fiscal in Municipal Council

The vice chairperson of Palakkad municipality, M. Saheeda, presented a Rs.12.24-crore surplus budget for 2014-15 financial year at the council meeting held here on Tuesday.

The budget presented by her showed an estimated total earning of Rs.144.27 crore and expenditure of Rs.132.02 crore for the next financial year.

The budget proposed to take up 14 major works in the next financial year. A sum of Rs.2 crore would be spent for the construction of the Palakkad Development Authority complex; Rs.94 lakh for the modernisation of slaughter houses; Rs.50 lakh for the renovation of municipal parks; Rs.75 lakh for construction a gas based crematorium at Vazhakadavu-Jainemdu; Rs.10 lakh for completion of Kallikkad Khabarstan; Rs.20 lakh for construction of Anganwadis; Rs.15 lakh for drinking water supply; Rs.10 lakh for the renovation of Town Hall Annex; Rs.20 lakh for the construction of quarters for municipal employees. In her budget speech, Mrs. Saheeda said that four major development works of the municipality was approved by State government and recommended it to the Central government for financial assistance.

Recommended projects

The projects recommended by the State government are Rs. 36.9 crore for constructing the third phase of the drinking water supply scheme; Rs.16.87 crore for the development of Melamuri market; Rs.13.03 crore for drainage construction and Rs.5 crore for renovation of municipal roads.

The budget also promised to set up a new waste management plant to tackle the problem of solid waste management.

The budget also proposed to take up with financial assistance from the State government the construction of flyovers at Court Road-PHO road in Sultanpet and at Fort Maidan-Civil Station road to ease the traffic congestion in the town. The presentation of the budget was objected to by members of the BJP. Its leader in the council, N. Sivarajan, said that Ms. Saheeda had no right to present a budget under a chairman against whom a no-confidence motion was moved by her and other councillors..

Palakkad municipality had recently created history when the ruling UDF moved a no-confidence motion against its own chairman Abdul Khoodose.

But the no-confidence motion could not be discussed for want of support from councillors.

Deccan Herald              11.02.2014

'e-transfer'of birth certificates begins in City

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has introduced ‘e-transfer’, a first-of-its-kind initiative that hastens issue of birth certificates. Similarly, death certificates can be obtained by blood relatives of the deceased within three days.

This move will allow parents to get digitally signed birth certificates at Palike-registered hospitals on the same day of the birth. Around 1,480 private hospitals in the City have already been given passwords and hospital staff are being trained in software handling and data transmission. The certificates will also be available at 90 BangaloreOne centres.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Joint Director for Statistics of Palike, Shankarappa, said: “The online registration system available on the Palike website was earlier limited to the civic agency, but now it has been extended to hospitals. Hospital authorities can access the portal and enter details through the unique password given to them by the Palike. The details entered would be verified by Palike officials and the event is registered immediately at the registration centres.”

Shankarappa maintained that on a pilot basis, the software was being used at some   hospitals such as Manipal Hospital, MS Ramaiah Hospital, Sagar Apollo, among others for the last one and a half years. Directions have been issued to all the hospitals coming under Palike limits to issue certificates using the new facility. Each certificate is preprinted with a serial number, State and Central governments emblems, 24-digit security code and a BBMP emblem watermark to prevent the misuse of the certificates, he added.

Registration centres

Palike Commissioner M Lakshminarayana who was present at the meet, said: “The BBMP is the first in India to introduce the issue of birth and death certificate with digital signatures at hospitals. There are a total of 27 registration centres in the City. Apart from that, five major hospitals such as Vanivilas Women and Children Hospital, Victoria Hospital, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Gosha Hospital and KC General Hospital have been declared registration Centres.”

The commissioner added that even a foreign national staying in the city could avail the facility. “In the BBMP area around 1.6 lakh birth events and around 50,000 deaths events are being registered every year,” he said.

The online registration system will be available to hospitals on the website- http://sasbbmp.com/birthdeath.