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Municipal Corporations

  • A development story

    The Guntur Municipal Corporation leaves no stone unturned to ensure the city's all-round growth. THE Municipal Corporation of Guntur dreams big for the residents of the city, which has a more than 200-year-old history. It has achieved many firsts in its relatively brief existence of less than 20 years. The young corporation also has the youngest Mayor in the country, 23-year-old Kanna Nagaraju. The 52-member Municipal Council is guided by the young dynamic Municipal Commissioner Siddhartha Jain. Guntur means the village of tanks. It is believed that this village first came up close to what is known as the Red Tank. The French held Kondaveedu, a nearby village, from A.D. 1732 and built a fort to the east of the area now known as Old Guntur. The French commander constructed houses for himself and for his troopers towards the north of present-day Nallacheruvu (Black Tank) and this area was called New Guntur. One of the fastest developing Tier-III cities in Andhra Pradesh, Guntur has pride of place among municipal corporations in the State. A vibrant city, home to some of the wealthiest traders in cotton, chillis and tobacco, Guntur has fast metamorphosed into a modern city with an array of glittering shopping malls, restaurants and commercial complexes dotting the skyline. Providing basic civic amenities to a growing city with a population of over seven lakh has been a demanding task for the local body. It, however, has achieved many firsts, and dreams of providing 24-hour water supply to domestic and industrial consumers and meet the needs of the industrial corridor that is fast coming up between Vijayawada and Guntur. The corridor is expected to convert these into major Twin Cities of Andhra Pradesh after Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The GMC has achieved remarkable progress in augmenting basic amenities such as drinking water supply, sanitation, street lighting and solid waste management. It also has an efficient system in place to redress public grievances. "The GMC is highly responsive to civic problems and innovative in toning up its administrative machinery,' said District Collector Mohammad Ali Rafath. SANITATION A series of special drives has been launched by the Municipal Commissioner to augment the quality of basic services such as sanitation. The three-bin system has become a reality in many apartment complexes in the city and garbage clearance is 100 per cent. A week-long special sanitation drive in the city identified several issues, and short-term and long-term plans have been envisaged to solve them. For solid waste management, the GMC got a grant of Rs.1.26 crore from the Twelfth Finance Commission, which was spent on procuring dumper bins and tricycles. Today local residents' welfare associations take care of 50 per cent of the house-to-house garbage collection system. The use of coloured plastic bins for waste segregation at source has been introduced in some commercial areas too. Seventy-six acres of land was recently acquired in Yedlapadu mandal for dumping waste. Works such as construction of drains, laying of roads, improvement of road junctions and development of burial grounds were taken up at a cost of Rs.24 crore. Siddhartha Jain said: "People should be proud of the city they live in and be motivated to be part of the planned development. A systematic approach to administration and planning is the need of the hour. Special drives to improve sanitation and provide water supply connections will help in identifying several issues.' MEDICAL CAMP Mayor Kanna Nagaraju. At 23, he is the youngest Mayor in India. The municipal body is going beyond its principal mandate of providing basic amenities to the people; the GMC organises mega medical camps. The camps held on the Sri Patibandla Sitaramaiah High School grounds in December every year witnesses a huge turnout. The latest camp attracted more than 15,000 people. A team of 85 doctors from 20 specialisations attended to 13,400 patients. Medicines costing Rs.8.4 lakh were distributed. As many as 180 paramedical staff, students of nursing colleges and 370 cadets of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) volunteered their services. The success of the camp motivated some private hospitals and clinics to offer follow-up medical service for the patients. They would be treated for a month at a hospital of their choice. One of the most daunting tasks for the corporation is to ensure potable drinking water for the entire city. Guntur, which does not have a raw water source, depends on the Guntur Channel and the Buckingham Channel to supply 80 million litres per day (MLD) against the total ideal assessed demand of 121 MLD. The centuries-old water source at Sangam Jagarlamudi has been renovated thanks to the special interest shown by the Mayor. A water filtration plant of 10 million gallons per day has been commissioned and four reservoirs have been built at L.B. Nagar, Srinivasarao Thota, R.T.C. Colony and Stambalagaruvu. Rise in rEVENUE The corporation saw a turnaround in its finances with a near 100 per cent collection of tax and non-tax revenue from individuals and commercial establishments. Innovative steps taken by Deputy Commissioner N. Yadagiri Rao to boost revenue collection have yielded results; of the total 1.14 lakh assessments, 941 were new assessments. The revenue wing has been trifurcated

  • Ten fresh meningitis cases reported in the Capital

    The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has recorded ten new cases of Meningococcemia in the Capital, taking the total number of persons who have contracted the disease to 94 since January this year, officials said. Three cases have been reported from north Delhi zone, two from Shahdara south, one from Connaught Place and one each from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, MCD's Health department officials said. The disease has claimed 11 lives so far, out of which four were reported from the Capital, while seven were from the neighbouring states of UP and Haryana. However, MCD Health Officer N K Yadav said there was no need to panic and that the number of cases reported this year was lesser than the corresponding period last year. In 2007, 129 cases of meningococcemia were reported while in 2006, more than 200 such cases were reported. "

  • Perk from MCD? Now, plans for one-time parking tokens for full yr

    You would soon forget about the men handing out small slips every time you take your vehicle to a municipal parking slot. If the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has its way, you would instead pay a lump sum and get an annual parking token. And you can use a parking lot under MCD jurisdiction for as many times as you wish for the course of the year. The proposal was mooted at a meeting of the MCD's remunerative projects cell on Tuesday. A concept paper is expected to be presented in a few days. Leader of the House Subhash Arya told Newsline that a concept paper on the plan would be brought out soon. "The system will be totally computerised,' he said. "This will be an effective strategy against unauthorised parking lots. The cost of the yearly token will be Rs 1,000 for two-wheelers and Rs 2,000 for cars.' The coupon would enable one to use any MCD parking lot for the whole year, Arya said. "The token will be renewed at the end of each year.' For the MCD, the benefit comes in that the scheme will raise its coffers withy earnings by doing away with unauthorised parking slots, Arya said. For Delhiites, it would mean a relief from "errant parking contractors', known to charge at their whims, he said. At present, even parking for a few minutes entails paying the minimum fare

  • Flip-flop, flip-flop: MCD back to square one, centralises parking plan

    The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), it seems, is spending most of its time devising new plans every month to handle parking in the city instead of solving the problem. This time it has more to to add to the further chaos. After parking was decentralised zone-wise few months back to keep a better check on parking mafia, the civic body is again centralising the payment, tendering and collection of parking fees. Remunerative Project Cell (RP)

  • Survival roadmap for climate change

    Calcutta is to have a "detailed, scientific plan' to combat the effects of climate changes, courtesy a World Bank initiative. A three-member team from the bank was in town recently to kick off the project, which will use a simulated model to predict Calcutta's vulnerability to climate changes till 2050 and prepare a survival roadmap. "Calcutta is among the 10 cities in the world that are most vulnerable to climate changes. The Bengal government has okayed a World Bank proposal to launch an initiative to predict the changes,' said state environment secretary K.L. Meena.

  • Budget estimates to be reviewed following protests

    Chandigarh, February 12 The councillors of Municipal Corporation Chandigarh have decided to review the draft budget estimates for the year 2008-09. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of Finance and Contract Committee on Tuesday. While some members claimed that no decision over the draft budget estimates was taken in the meeting, Mayor Pardeep Chhabra maintained that the budget has been approved and referred to MC House.

  • Governance models

    Pakistan has a three-tier local government structure since 2001.

  • Stop Press

    The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is planning to provide industrial washing machines to traditional riverbank washermen in Delhi operating along the Yamuna. The corporation feels that introduction of washing machines would reduce water consumption and ensure a cleaner operation.

  • Power after 90 hours

    The power situation limped back to normal 96 hours after Cyclone Aila roared past the city. CESC officials claimed normal supply to the entire city resumed by Friday evening.

  • Solar lights to illuminate tribal areas

    There is finally light at the end of the road for tribal hamlets in Mumbai. The municipal corporation has started making use of solar-run streetlights to illuminate arterial roads and lanes of these hamlets.

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