Oh my Dear, Forget ur Fear,
Let all ur Dreams be Clear,
Never put Tear, Please Hear,
I want to tell one thing in ur Ear
Wishing u NEW YEAR"!The new mayor has decided to hold review meetings of each municipal department starting January 1, in a bid to streamline the working of
Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). Mayor Archana Dehankar announced this at a meeting of all department heads, deputy commissioners and ward officers to review the working of the water supply, education, encroachment, garden, transport and general administration department.
Taking the water department to task on Wednesday, the mayor directed officials to bring down increasing complaints of water leakage and contaminated water supply and improve the water distribution network across the city. Dehankar told TOI that directions have been issued to the water works department to repair water leaks and cases of polluted water supply within 24 hours of receiving a complaint and submit details to the mayor's office. The mayor has also asked officials to personally visit areas to solve the people's problems.
Dehankar further stated that at a time when other municipal corporations like Mumbai, Nashik and Thane are facing severe potable water shortage in the winter season, and implementing water cuts too, Nagpur has sufficient water till at least July 15.
As against a demand of 370 MLD water per day in the city, NMC is supplying almost 530 MLD these days, she said. However, almost 225 to 250 MLD water has been going waste due to leakages - man-made or technical. "We have directed officials to first streamline the water distribution network and check leakages. We plan to have a time-bound programme, including setting up monitoring system at all pumping stations to enable the corporation to ascertain exact quantity of water supplied to a zone and the quantity residents get from water tanks," she said.
Admitting that the corporation is going slack on leakage and other maladies, Dehankar accepted that most areas in east, north and central Nagpur get water on alternate days or no water for many days, while other areas get regular water supply. "We will ensure that there is regular and equitable distribution of water in all areas of the city throughout the year soon," she said.
Despite the civic house having unanimously passed a proposal to rationalise general taxes and give 10% rebate to new constructions having facilities of rainwater harvesting and solar heaters, the property tax department is still issuing demand notes as per old norms, Dehankar has said. She said that municipal commissioner Asseem Gupta has failed to implement the civic house's decision regarding rationalisation of property tax rates. "The civic house had also announced a few concessions for senior citizens, handicapped persons and women. But these too were not included in the demand notes issued to property owners," she alleged.
NMC has also begun an exercise to revaluate or reassess tax on 1.80 lakh properties in 23 of the 75 wards across 10 zones in the city. As per the new policy, property tax is being calculated on the basis of rental value or the annual letting value of the property. Thus the revaluation exercise essentially involves the revision of standard rent of properties in a particular area. Dehankar said, "I have issued directions to provide details regarding methods of property tax collection, how much revenue has been generated till date and whether the decisions of the civic house were being implemented or not, within the next seven days to the mayors office."
Municipal commissioner Asseem Gupta was on leave, and could not be contacted despite many attempts.