Raipur, February 21, 2011
The municipal’s general body meeting (GBM) will be held on February 23, 2011 during which besides other agendas, the issues of water crisis in summer and property tax will be the prominent ones over which the Opposition BJP will grill the ruling Congress party.
This time, there are 35 agendas in the GBM including Ganj Mandi project, water bylaws, Basic Service to the Urban Poor (BSUP) projects, Integrated Development of Small and Medium Towns (IDSMT) plan, upgradation of contractors’ grade, etc. “Majority of the agendas do not have direct relation to the common people as ten agendas (from 13 to 23) are related to BSUP projects while five incorporate different proposals pertaining to contractors.
Last time the GBM was conducted in August 23, 2010 and now it would be held after six months gap.
The Speaker Sanjay Shrivastava had earlier sent a note sheet to the civic Commissioner Om Prakash Choudhary asking him to quickly conduct GBM and pointing that according to Municipal Act the maximum gap between the two GBMs should not be more than 60 days.
Shrivastava had even asked the RMC Commissioner to use his discretionary powers under certain sections of Municipal Act and fix the date of GBM after informing about mayor’s non-cooperation to state government.
The BJP said that the municipal should have conducted at least two GBMs from August 23, 2010 to January 2011. Later, the BJP corporators too had demanded from Choudhary to call general body meeting at the earliest by submitting a memorandum to him. “The GBM should have been called much earlier but it was Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak who had deliberately stalled it by far. This has virtually halted the development works in the city because several proposals are still pending and needed to be discussed in the GBM,” the BJP corporators said.
Admitting the delay in GBM, the Congress corporators say that all the issues pertaining to the people would certainly be discussed. They alleged that the BJP in the lat couple of months had mounted pressure on the Speaker to call GBM at the earliest and had even prompted him to send a note sheet to the civic Commissioner.
BJP gears up to grill Cong at general body meeting
Raipur, February 21, 2011
The Opposition BJP has prepared to grill ruling Congress at RMC during the general body meeting (GBM) to be held on February 23, 2011. “Finally, after a long gap, the GBM has been called upon and we are ready to give tough time to the Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak and her team for not including public related issues in the agendas,” said Subhash Tiwari, leader of BJP corporators on Monday.
The BJP has framed a strategy to raise additional subjects that are not included in the agendas.
Tiwari said the ruling party had adopted safer route by deliberately excluding burning issues. “Why the Congress does not want to discuss over the incomplete the Water Augmentation Scheme when it is well aware that the people would face acute water crisis in summer again? Why it does not want to disclose its plans regarding water supply to the wards where groundwater tables declines sharply with soaring temperatures?” asked Tiwari.
“Besides, the list of agendas misses the significant issue of mosquito menace in city. Presently, the RMC is only conducting fogging in the wards and has not commenced anti-larva campaign to rid people from mosquito menace. But the Congress has decided to pose silence over this issue,” he said.
The BJP will also grill the Congress on additional billing of water tankers during last summer. According to information, an additional bill of Rs 50-60 lakh had been submitted to the municipal for water supply in different parts of the city. “The bill indicates that the water was supplied through tankers even after completion of the term of the work order,” said Tiwari.
The BJP has further sought from the Speaker Sanjay Shrivastava to allow the corporators to raise issues of their wards after the discussions on all the agendas would be complete. In this connection, the BJP corporators have given a letter to Shrivastava on Monday.
The BJP will also target the ruling Congress for hiking water tax and would mount pressure on it to reduce the tax from Rs 200 per month to Rs 120-125 per month.
“The Congress is giving wrong information to the public that the state government has forced the RMC to hike the water tax. In fact, the government has nothing to do with the municipal’s water tax and it was sole decision of the Congress-led RMC led by Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak that decided to impose hiked water tax on the people,” said the BJP corporators.
“She took the decision after all the mayors expressed their concern over apathetic conditions of their respective municipal corporation in the absence of adequate fund during the meeting convened by the Urban Administration Department and demanded hike in different taxes. Considering this, the government gave its approval to hike the taxes but the revenue goes in the exchequer of municipal corporations,” they said.
The BJP will further oppose the municipal’s new property tax format according to which the owners of empty plots would also come under tax net. The Opposition says that the RMC should exempt empty plots for residential purpose from property tax and recover tax from those who have kept their plots vacant for commercial purpose, especially for factories etc.
“The RMC has increased property tax and is recovering Rs 600 from the taxpayers and Rs 300 from non-taxpayers. Similarly, the licence fee has been hiked by 25 percent and the shopkeepers have been threatened to either pay the fee or their shops would be sealed. The parking fee in public places, rents of vegetable markets and development fee too have been increased by threefold and these issues too should be discussed in the general body meeting,” they said.
“If Congress really wants rollback in tax hike then it should pressurise mayor to amend tax rates through Mayor-in-Council (MiC) meet and general body meeting so that a proposal seeking reduced tax rates could be sent to the state government for approval,” he said.
Cong corporators boycott RMC Speaker’s meeting
Raipur, February 21, 2011
The Congress corporators boycotted the municipal Speaker Sanjay Shrivastava’s meeting that was convened on Monday prior to general body meeting (GBM) to be held on February 23, 2011. The Congress corporators took the decision during their meeting on Monday noon organised to chalk out plan for the GBM.
“We always attend the Speaker’s meeting prior to GBM but the general discussions are presented to the media in a twisted form that directly affects our image. Hence, we decided not to attend Speaker’s meeting,” said the Congress corporators.
“Besides, when we discuss all the agendas and issues in the GBM then why Speaker wants to convenes separate meeting of all the corporators before general body?” questioned Congress corporators.
They also submitted a memorandum to Shrivastava with their three-point demands regarding - sitting arrangements of Mayor-in-Council (MiC) members and independent corporators in the GBM, to call upon special GBM, nomination of panel of corporators to preside the House as protem Speaker in the absence of Speaker under sections 18(2) and 33 of Municipal Act.
Regarding sitting arrangements, the Congress corporators pointed that the Speaker did not made any change according to rules in spite of their frequent requests in the past. “We have again sought change in the sitting arrangements MiC members and independent corporators during the GBM as there has been reshuffle in the MiC recently and both Congress and independent corporators have been inducted in the new team,” they said.
On nomination of corporators, they said the Speaker should nominate at least two senior corporators for protem Speaker every year but he did make any announcement in the previous GBMs. “We have not requested the Speaker to announce the names of two corporators so that the House proceedings could be continued uninterruptedly,” they said.
On proposal for special GBM, they said the state government had hiked water tax by 330 times from Rs 60 to Rs 200 owing to which the common people are shocked and infuriated. “The government hiked the water tax after publishing it on January 12, 2011 in its gazette. We oppose this hike and seek discussion over this issue in the special GBM,” said the Congress corporators.
Zone 2 prez convenes meeting over water crisis
Raipur, February 21, 2011
The zone 2 president and corporator of Raman Mandir ward Neetu Ghanshyam Tiwari on Monday convened meeting of ten corporators of her region to frame plans to deal water crisis in summer. The water scarce areas in the zone include Mova, Daldal Sivni, Chunabhatti, Dabrapara, etc. To ensure that the water supply through tankers in such areas should be done on daily basis, she urged all the corporators to prepare list of the water scarce places of their respective wards and inform submit it in the zone official. The meeting was attended by corporators Anwar Hussein, Rakesh Dhotre, Jasbeer Singh Dhillon, Jaggu Singh Thakur, Mamta Subhash Agrawal, Dilip Sarthi, Anis Ahmed and municipal’s Water Works officials from zone 2.
NSUI demands students’ union poll at RSU
Submits memorandum to vice chancellor
Raipur, February 21, 2011
The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) has demanded from Pt Ravishankar Shukla University (RSU) to organise students’ union elections at the earliest. In this connection, the NSUI members led by their state president Sanjeev Shukla submitted a memorandum to the vice chancellor Professor Shiv Kumar Pandey on Monday.
“The students’ union poll has not been conducted since 2005 owing to which a number of issues related to the students remained unsolved. For the past six years, the topper students are being made students’ president but they hardly raise voice for their fellow students when required because they fear to lose the tag of ‘favorite pupil’ of the teaching faculty,” said Shukla.
He also held the BJP-led state government responsible for not conducting students’ union polls. “The BJP knows that the NSUI is the strongest organisation for students and apprehends that we would will all the seats because of out popularity,” said Shukla.
He said the NSUI would launch aggressive movement against the government and the varsity if the students’ union poll would not be conducted before the scheduled time which is September 2011.
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