<p>Interim compliance report by the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board in Original Application No 81-2022 (Central Zone Bench) in the matter of Bhoma Ram Mali Vs State of Rajasthan & Others.</p>
IN a statement reminiscent of US President George Bush's remark that India's middle class was responsible for the global food crisis, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said that Mumbai's burgeoning population is responsible for the flooding woes of the city. The growing influx of outsiders is not only putting severe stress on the infrastructure of the city, but also proving to be one of the major reasons of increasing floods in Mumbai. This fact has been substantiated by the BMC, which has provided a chart of flood days since 1945.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) might be trying to round up stray cattle as quickly as possible, but the problem of inadequate "police staff' during the operations remains. On Tuesday, yet another MCD inspector was roughed up by irate illegal dairy owners in Saraswati Vihar, making it the third incident where MCD officials had to face the wrath of the public. The civic agency has to submit a status report on controlling the cattle menace before the Delhi High Court by August.
"We survived the deluge of 2005 but are still worried about this year." The fear, voiced by many citizens, is an apt comment on how ill-prepared the civic administration is to deal with the rains. With just weeks to go before the onset of the monsoon, contractors appointed by the BMC to clean the nullahs (drains) have completed barely 20% of the work. Although the civic administration had fixed a deadline of May 31, it has now been forced to extend it to June 8. The contract to clean the nullahs is worth Rs 72 crore and work has been spread out over two years.
Even after spending crores of rupee on the relaying and upgrading the city's sewer lines under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), civic body can hardly heave a sigh of relief that they have given the city dwellers respite from waterlogged streets during the monsoons. Thanks to the century old sewer lines and age-old pumps at various pumping stations. Moreover, engineers are also skeptic about the fate of these pumps once de-silting and sewerage-relaying projects under the JNNURM are completed.
To augment the supply of drinking water to the city, particularly the southern fringes of Kolkata, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) will be setting up a water treatment plant along with a 2.5 million gallon capacity underground reservoir cum pumping station at Garden Reach. The decision was taken at a meeting of the works and tender committee held in the conference room of Unnayan Bhavan, recently. The project will be constructed on turn key basis. The committee has advised the wing resposible for setting up the pumping station to invite fresh tenders.
Civic bodies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region could soon start sharing landfill sites to create environment friendly dumping grounds, thereby reducing the requirement of land for garbage. "Two to three civic bodies can possibly have a landfill site in common where they can dump their garbage, however the land will be only for bio-degradable waste," Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said. The sites would be earmarked for certain civic bodies on the basis of their geographical proximity to the landfills.
After four years of monitoring by the Supreme Court, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Tuesday said the modern Ghazipur abattoir, which has missed many a deadline, would be ready by May 20 but the apex court gave it an additional 10 days. Appearing for MCD, additional solicitor general Amarendra Saran informed a Bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhan, S B Sinha and A K Mathur that the project would be ready by May 20.
Autorickshaws and private buses are responsible for the snarls on city roads, a Besu study has revealed. The study, commissioned by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC), was conducted by the transportation engineering and planning wing of the civil engineering department under the leadership of Prof Sudip Roy. "There are over 100 auto routes in the city and the count is rising by the day,' said Roy. "Initially, an auto carried three passengers. Now, they ferry up to six in violation of traffic rules.'
In order to improve the water supply and distribution system to the city, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will be constructing an alternate water supply line soon. This would act as one of the main water supply line for the city, replacing a 60-inch water supply line from Palta to Tallah. Rs 305 crore has already been sanctioned in this regard by the Centre.
Siliguri: The Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) will crack down on those who tap water illegally from underground supply lines in many of its wards, in a bid to give uninterrupted water supply to residents. As part of its drive to check the diversion of water, the civic body will conduct raids, slap fine on those found taking water without permission and even seek the help of police to seize their pumps. "In the past couple of weeks, we have received complaints regarding water supply,' said Sharadindu Chakraborty, member, mayor-in-council (water).
