House adjourned on contract to remove illegal hoardings

BJP alleges Mayor’s kin bagged contract without meeting criteria

In RMC’s general body meeting

Raipur, Aug 20, 2010

The BJP on Friday rocked the RMC’s general body meeting by grilling the ruling Congress party on various agendas including sanitation, resignation of Mayor-in-Council (MiC) member Lakhwant Singh Gill and on MiC agenda list that contained several errors. They continued to level allegations against Congress during debate on each agenda and in one such incident, the BJP corporator Suryakant Rathore alleged that the contract to remove illegal hoardings from the city was being partially given to Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak’s brother-in-law. Infuriated by Rathore’s charges, the Congress corporators demanded apology from him and crated scene in the House for a couple of minutes before the Speaker Sanjay Shrivastava adjourned the House for 20 minutes.  Till the report was filed, the House has passed 23 agendas out of 68.
Even though the House remained uproarious the entire day and the Opposition succeeded in trapping the ruling party in the lengthy debates, the members failed to maintain decorum at certain junctures and crossed their limits. In one such incident, independent corporator Mrityunjay Dubey and BJP corporator Ashok Manwani had heated exchanges on taking part in the discussion. Before the debate on the agendas, the leader of BJP corporators Subhash Tiwari demanded for debate on significant issues like sanitation, purchase of 100 city buses and Ganj Mandi project, but when he was interfered by Manwani frequently, Dubey asked him to sit and to express his opinion only after taking permission from the Speaker. This enraged the BJP corporators and they started exchanging remarks in support of Manwani. However, the episode was ended when the senior Congress leaders intervened and pacified Dubey and the BJP corporators.
Raising Gill’s resignation issue, the BJP sought clarification from the ruling party to inform the House whether his resignation was accepted or not and also demanded to disclose the reasons for his sudden decision to step down from the significant post of president of Public Works department.
The BJP corporator said the Congress had failed in every department and the MiC lacked coordination with the municipal Secretariate which was apparent in the agenda list that had ample errors resulting in deletion of eight agendas and inclusion of three new ones later. He further said Gill resignation indicated his frustrations as he was even unable to commence development works in his own ward. He said Gill was the first wicket gone from the 14-membered MiC team and soon few more would follow the suite.
Earlier, the House greeted the six new Aldermen nominated recently. The House also congratulated the Mayor for getting PhD. Gill came to attend the proceeding at about 11.50 am, almost fifty minutes late, but his arrival surprised both the ruling as well as Opposition parties. The leader of BJP corporators Subhash Tiwari also came about 40 minutes late. There was rumour that he was taking significant inputs from former Mayor Sunil Soni to stall the proceedings of the House by taking the debates to astray and by unnecessary interruptions.



House passes hoarding, vendor polices

BJP objects on proposed new set-ups, hiring of agents to collect revenue, issuance of NOC to liquor shops

Raipur, Aug 20, 2010

Soon the city would wear a clean and organised look and would get rid of illegal hoardings erected at the roadsides as well as on the rooftops. The news hoarding policy proposed by the MiC recently was unanimously passed by the general body meeting on Friday. The House also passed the proposed vendor policy under which the street vendors would be rehabilitated under the overbridges of the capital. These vendors would be allowed to operate their business on time-slot basis.
Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak informed the house that with the new hoarding policy, the contracting agency would be allocated a specific zone where it could install hoardings or billboards on the pre-decided spaces. She informed that the RMC’s current revenue from the existing hoardings was about Rs 45-50 lakh excluding the illegal ones. “With the new policy, hopefully the revenue would shoot up to three to fourfold,” she said.
The independent corporator Dinanath Sharma demanded that the advertising agencies should be instructed to mention their registration numbers in the hoardings as is the cult in the railway stations.
On LCD advertising rent agenda, some of the corporators from the Congress and BJP including independents demanded to reduce the proposed hike on rent of the LCD based at Sharda chowk. The MiC has proposed to increase the rent of the LCD from Rs 500 per sq ft to Rs 1000 per sq ft annually. The Mayor assured that the rates would be fixed on consensus and the agenda was passed with slight amendment.
On the agenda of hiring agents to collect revenue, the BJP feared that corruption would prevail in the procedures and the actual revenue would go in the pockets of the contractors instead of going to the municipal’s kitty. The BJP corporators said the ruling party, instead of giving three percent commission to the collection agents, must distribute incentives to its own staff for revenue collection. The also sought
The Mayor, however, clarified that the agents would not be given authority to collect amount from the citizens in terms of revenue, but would only be asked to fill the forms visiting each house.
On agenda to making it mandatory for the liquor shops to obtain NOC from the RMC, the BJP said there was no need to table the proposal as the decision was beyond the jurisdiction of ruling party. Some of the corporators demanded to close down all the liquor shops being operated within the municipal limits.
On the new set-ups of zones and RMC head office, the BJP Sought detailed definition of set-up and questioned the significance of the proposal. The Congress said the government had asked the RMC to prepare new set-up and the agenda was tabled in the House after considering all the essential aspects. During the debate, the BJP corporators raised issue of supply of polluted water and asked the reasons for pruning various posts including the post of chemist who tests whether the water is potable or not. In her reply, the Mayor clarified that all the significant posts had been kept intact and the water being supplied to the people was being checked on daily basis.



BJP frustrates Cong on vehicle purchase proposal

In General body meeting

Raipur, Aug 20, 2010

The BJP corporators frustrated ruling Congress party at RMC with their flurry of questions regarding the proposed purchase of vehicles for Sanitation department during the debate on the particular agenda that was tabled in the general body meeting (GBM) on Friday. The president of the relevant department Govind Mishra looked helpless during his replies and was continuously seeking assistance from his fellow corporators from the ruling party and the officials as the BJP corporators allegedly sniffed corruption into the entire matter. However, Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak came to Mishra’s rescue and clarified that the MiC recommended the agenda for debate considering all the aspects and transparency would be maintained while purchasing vehicles.
The BJP corporators mounted pressure on the Congress to disclose the details of agenda 15 under which dumpers with different capacity as well as 3D machines would be purchased to lift garbage from the capital. The independent corporator Dinanath Sharma questioned the relevance of spending Rs 2.96 crore in vehicle purchase when already the agenda 16 mentioned that the RMC would give the responsibility of solid waste management system to the Bangalore-based agency - Paradigm Environmental Strategies Private Limited within next six months.
When Mishra stammered while replying, the Mayor informed the House dumpers would be purchased according the fixed rates of the government and 3D machines would be purchased by inviting tenders. She said the municipal aimed to reduce the tipping fee charged by the contracting agency by providing its existing sanitary infrastructure. After being convinced by the Mayor’s information, both the agendas - 15 and 16 were passed in the House unanimously.
When the agenda of new veterinary hospital was tabled the leader of BJP corporators Subhash Tiwari asked why the hospital was being shifted to the store of zone-4 office as the space was reserved to construct zone office. He demanded from the ruling party to shift the hospital elsewhere. In her reply, the Mayor informed that the 3000 sq ft area is not sufficient to construct zone office and hence it had been selected for vet hospital. In addition, there would be arrangement for dog sterilisation within the hospital premises, she added.
On the agenda to provide about 2.5 acres land filling site to the government to install incinerator to dispose of bio medical waste and on reconsideration of nursing home license fee, the BJP corporators sought information about the location where the land would be provided. The independent corporator Mrityunjay Dubey asked will the RMC would also take action against those nursing homes that utilise the basements of their edifices to treat patients instead of making them available for parking purpose.
In her reply, the Mayor said the land filling site for bio medical waste was must as the nearest incinerator was in Bhilai and the waste was being transported through vans by one E-tech company which was not sufficient to clean up all the bio waste from the capital. She further informed the House that the land filling site would be provided adjacent to the site being provided to Paradigm Environmental Strategies Private Limited for solid waste management system.