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Corporation gearing up for Census 2011

Saturday, 05 February 2011 02:24 administrator
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The Hindu      05.02.2011

Corporation gearing up for Census 2011

Aloysius Xavier Lopez

To be conducted between February 9 and 28

: The Chennai Corporation is gearing up for Census 2011, to be conducted between February 9 and 28. Even though there is influx of large number of people in the city from other parts of the country, the data collected so far by the civic body state that the population has increased only by around 2.4 lakh since 2001 which is less than half of the decadal increase of 5.02 lakh in 1991-2001.

According to data collected so far by various operations, including house-listing conducted recently, the population of the city is around 45.8 lakh. According to Census 2001, the city had a population of 43.43 lakh.

There is also a decrease in population in some areas such as T.Nagar, according to estimates made during the house-listing operations a few months ago.

Officials of the Chennai Corporation are yet to find the reason and are depending on provisional population data of the Census 2011 to throw more light on demography of Chennai.

Officials of the Directorate of Census Operations Tamil Nadu said the scanning of the schedules of the house-listing operations is under way and the official announcement of the population of the city would be made in April.

School teachers asked to participate

The civic body has started to impart training to over 9,500 employees, including supervisors and enumerators for the Census 2011. It has also asked school teachers to participate in Census 2011 and cover all areas.

Reconnaissance of residential areas in the city by enumerators will start on Sunday, as part of the preliminary steps for Census 2011.

Officials of the Directorate of Census Operations Tamil Nadu said that the reason for the decrease noticed in population growth rate of the city may perhaps be because of residents not able to provide data during house-listing done a few months ago.

Complaints received

“We received a number of complaints on enumerators not turning up for house-listing in Chennai,” said an official of the Directorate of Census Operations.

The house-listing did not cover institutions and Census 2011 would cover persons in institutions such as prison, old age home, ashrams and those who are homeless.

Unwillingness of residents for enumeration, slum rehabilitation on the suburbs and relocation of more people towards the suburbs are being cited as possible reasons for reduction in population growth by the civic body.

 

Stop outsourcing, Left tells Mayor

Tuesday, 01 February 2011 09:59 administrator
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The New Indian Express        01.02.2011

Stop outsourcing, Left tells Mayor

CHENNAI: Criticising the DMK-run Chennai Corporation for failing to learn from its past mistakes in engaging private players for conservancy operations, the Left parties on Monday urged Mayor M Subramanian to stop the practice of ‘outsourcing’ when the civic body’s employees could do a better job.

The strong criticism by Left-affiliated councillors comes in the wake of a resolution asking the State government to allow the civic body to call for fresh tenders to select a private player to continue the conservancy operations (now being carried out by Neel Metal Fanalca) from January 2012.

Participating in the debate at the Council meet, Meena Sampath, CPI councillor, said, “Left parties had opposed the move to privatise conservancy operations in city and despite failures by both the private players in cleaning the streets and roads, we could not understand why the civic body is again planning to engage another private player when the NMF’s term ends by year-end.” Echoing the same concern, Devi, CPI(M) councillor, also urged Mayor Subramanian to drop the proposal to engage another private player to continue the operations at the four zones - 3, 6, 8 and 10 - where NMF would cease its work by December 31 this year.

It may be noted that the Madras HC has recently allowed NMF to continue its conservancy operations at four of the civic body’s zones. Though the Corporation wanted to pack NMF off by March this year for its sluggish performance despite numerous warnings, the private player went to court against the civic body citing breach in contract terms.

Mayor said that the incumbent Council’s term could end by October and the resolution was to apprise the State government on the prevailing situation than regarding conservancy operations in those four zones.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 February 2011 10:00
 

Tenders for new conservancy agency: Mayor

Tuesday, 01 February 2011 08:38 administrator
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The Times of India      01.02.2011

Tenders for new conservancy agency: Mayor

TNN, Feb 1, 2011, 05.10am IST

CHENNAI: Having decided to use the services of Neel Metal Fanalca till December 2011 in the wake of Madras high court directions, the elected council of the corporation on Monday gave its nod to the civic administration to begin the process of identifying a consultant to prepare tender documents so that a new conservancy agency could be hired from 2012.

The corporation needs about a year to finalise prequalification bids, technical bids and commercial bids of contractors.

The decision to set the ball rolling to identify a consultant was taken unanimously at the council's monthly meet at Ripon Buildings. Upon a mutual agreement between the corporation and Neel Metal Fanalca, the Madras high court last Friday passed an order directing that Neel Metal Fanalca be allowed to continue operations till December 2011. The local body has to release the payment withheld for non-performance of Neel Metal Fanalca in the past in two instalments, so that the agency can improve its infrastructure and upgrade its services with more manpower.

Once the services improve, the local body shall hand over the wards of the Kodambakkam zone it had withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the private agency -- ward 129 (west K K Nagar), 128 (Virugambakkam south), 118 (Trustpuram), 120 (United India Colony and Kamaraj Colony), 121 (Dr Subburayan Nagar and Raghavan Colony), 116 (Nandanam) and 115 (Alwarpet), the high court had said.

"A high-level team, comprising corporation commissioner D Karthikeyan, deputy commissioners and members of all parties, will be set up to study the improvements," mayor M Subramanian said.

In the wake of the developments, the council was informed that the recruitment drive for conservancy labourers in all the four zones coming under Neel Metal Fanalca -- Ice House, Kodambakkam, Mylapore and Pulianthope -- had been shelved. The civic body, with the support of employment exchange, had sent call letters to 17,000 eligible persons for conservancy work and many particpated in the interview. There was a requirement of 6,811 workers to replace Neel Metal Fanalca in all four zones.

During the discussion, Congress councillor P N Vanaja said there were large-scale complaints from the public on the poor performance of Neel Metal Fanalca. "One thing for sure, they are more interested in collecting debris to increase the tonnage. The elected representatives have to block their compactors if the workers fail to remove garbage from the streets," she said. 

 
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