House passes Ganj Mandi project

Raipur, February 24, 2011

Finally, the RMC’s general body (GBM) has passed the significant agenda of Ganj Mandi project on Thursday. The agenda was tabled in the House for second time because the last GBM had refused to approve it as both the ruling Congress and Opposition BJP had recommended for amendment in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the RMC and RDA. For this, the last GBM had constituted an 11-member committee chaired by independent corporator Mrityunjay Dubey that amended 25 points in the MoU and sent it to the MiC.

However, before passing the agenda, Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak said the RMC should get authority to sanction the tender for the Ganj Mandi project and the rates should be fixed according to collector’s guidelines. She further said that the RDA should give a minimum amount to the RMC before the commencement of the project.

The project will commence only after the claims and objections of the affected businessmen would be resolved. The affected businessmen would be rehabilitated in the same place after completion of the project.

A nine-member project coordination committee (PCC) will be soon formed to monitor the Ganj Mandi project from commencement to completion. The committee will be chaired by the Mayor and co-chaired by the RDA Chairman. The members of this committee will be civic Commissioner, Authority’s CEO, one officer each from the municipal corporation and RDA, MiC members of PWD and Revenue departments and one corporator.

To maintain transparency, this committee will review the progress works of the project every month and would give necessary instructions while a joint bank account of RMC and RDA would be opened to route all transactions related to the project.

The RMC will complete the acquisition process of the Ganj Mandi spawning in about 2.5 acres land within 12 months.

The RDA will build the project in a phased manner and according to the design approved by the PCC.

The PCC will have right to hire professional agencies to publicise the project and the entire expenditure would be included in the project cost.

Water tax hike: BJP, Cong hold each other responsible

During RMC’s general body meeting

Raipur, February 24, 2011

 

Giving political hue to the decision of water tax hike, both ruling Congress and Opposition BJP on Thursday held each other responsible for deeply denting people’s pocket. The blamegame turned into a verbal war during the second day of the municipal’s general body meeting (GBM) and both the parties prolonged the debate over the issue of water tax for about two hours. Eventually the House decided that a special GBM on this issue would be called later for discussion. Later, the House passed remaining 29 out of total 35 agendas including the significant Ganj Mandi project and the Speaker Sanjay Shrivastava adjourned the proceedings sine die.

The House proceedings commenced on Thursday morning with uproar created by the BJP corporators who entered in the well protesting against the ruling party for leveling allegations against their party leaders who do not belong to the municipal corporation.

The proceedings were further stalled when the independent corporators ridiculed BJP corporators and termed them insignificant in their own party. The leader of BJP corporators Subhash Tiwari and corporator Suryakant Rathore locked in heated exchange with the independents and eventually the Speaker had to adjourn the House for ten minutes.

Later, while discussion on agenda 8, the proposal on water bylaws tabled in the House for approval, the BJP again raised the water tax issue but Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak intervened and clarified that the agenda had no links with tax hike and simply aimed to form rules pertaining to water for future reference.

Terming the agenda vague, Tiwari sought elucidation from the Mayor. He said none of the corporators could comprehend the agenda as it encompassed three different subjects and hence it should be tabled in the next GBM.

Asking reason for hike in water tax the independent corporator Anju Chandrashekhar further queried whether it was RMC’s decision or state government’s orders.

The Congress corporator Lakhwant Singh Gill said besides primary health and food, the government should also take responsibility to provide free water to the citizens and by incurring the entire expenditure, it must give grant to the RMC.

The deputy leader of BJP corporators Prafulla Vishwakarma indicated that in spite of about 1.50 lakh houses in the city, only 40000 tap connections were legal. He said the RMC should first ensure at least one lakh legal tap connections before revising water tax. He suggested that the ruling Congress could subsidise water tax to display its generous face to the Raipurians.

Holding previous elected body at RMC for not regularising tap connections, the MiC member and Congress corporator Gyanesh Sharma said the initiative should have been taken much before. “In fact, the BJP-led state government is responsible for putting extra tax burden on common people and the RMC is forced to follow its instructions,” he said.

“Not only water tax, but to put burden of hiked property tax and aggregate tax on people and now decision to bring empty plots under tax net have been conceived by the government,” he added.

Sharma offered that the municipal would not increase any tax in next four year but sought consensus over it in the House.

The independent corporator and MiC member Mrityunjay Dubey said that the decision of tax hike should be taken by the GBM, not state government. He said he was against the hike in spite of being MiC member.

Another MiC member Pramod Dubey blamed the civic officials for water tax hike and said they did on directives of state government.

The president of the municipal’s Water Works department Jaggu Singh Thakur agreed to evolve consensus over amendment in water tax hike but said the civic Commissioner Om Prakash Choudhary should first clear the cloud confusion over the issue.

On insistence of corporators to clarify whether the water tax hike was decision of the government or the RMC and whether the GBM had right to change it, Choudhary said since the information about hike had been published in government gazette according to the Act, the decision cannot be revoked or amended. However, he said the issue can be discussed by calling special GBM in which a separate proposal seeking amendment in the water tax hike could be sent to the government.

The House further passed agendas like – establishment of solar power plant through public private partnership (PPP) method in the outdoor stadium, the indoor stadium will be on the name of former mayor Balbeer Juneja and outdoor stadium will be on the name of Swami Vivekananda, construction of Rs 1.35 crore nullah from Shiv Nagar (Ring Road No 1) to Gokul Nagar, ten agendas (from agenda 13 to 23) under Basic Service to the Urban Poor (BSUP) projects and five agendas (from agenda 31 to 35) regarding upgradation of contractors’ grade.

Besides, the House also passed agenda to appoint municipal’s empanelled consultant Sandeep, Neena and Associates to prepare concept plan and stage 1 report of on proposed fully-facilitated auditorium at Telebandha.

The GBM also passed unanimously an agenda pertaining to proposed amusement park in Motibagh in about 3.10 acres. The municipal’s empanelled consultancy company - Pandey, Dua & Mathur group has prepared a brief project on amusement park. The House passed the agenda to allow the consultancy group to give presentation on the project to the Mayor, corporators and civic officials. The amusement park will comprise indoor and outdoor hi-tech entertainment facilities, commercial zone like shops, food courts and ample parking space.