City mayor K. Chandrika expressed concerned over the delay in receiving District Planning Committee’s (DPC) approval for city Corporation’s budget proposals for the current financial year.
Talking to reporters on the occasion of the first anniversary of the present Corporation council Ms Chandrika said that proposals for around 765 projects to be implemented in the city this year are getting indefinitely delayed because of the delay in getting DPC approval.
Although the State Level Technical Committee had raised objection to 138 projects, citing technical reasons, the rest of the projects are yet to be approved, she said.
``We had submitted these projects for approval in August. It has already been three months. There are just four more months left for this financial year to end. Since this is the last year of the 11{+t}{+h}{+ }Five Year Plan, there will be no spill-overs for next year. Which means that we may not be able to complete any of these projects in time,’’ she said.
Speaking about the projects taken up by the Corporation in the last one year Ms Chandrika said that the decentralisation of solid waste treatment will be the top priority for the civic body. Projects for upgradation facilities at the Vilappilsala solid waste treatment plant will also be expedited, she said.
``Construction of the leachate treatment plant at Vilappilsala will be completed within three to four months. Work on the sanitary land fill is also progressing. Meanwhile the Corporation is focusing on considerably reducing the quantity of garbage being transported to the plant through source level waste treatment project which will be inaugurated in Muttada ward on November 15,’’ Ms Chandirka said.
She said that the civic body had disbursed Rs 31 crore for infrastructure development in the last one year. This includes tarring of around 35900 meter roads and concreting work was done on 12950 meter road.
The mayor said the Corporation had also taken initiatives to improve its revenue collection. A special squad has been formed to conduct building assessment. Around 279 buildings were assessed by the squad in the last one year. A monitoring system has also been put in please to ensure systematic collection of building and professional tax. As part of ensuring transparency and efficiency, the functioning of Revenue and Town Planning departments of the Corporation has been modernised.
The school breakfast programme has been extended to the newly annexed wards of the Corporation. Around Rs 1.25 crore has been utilised for the programme.
Ms Chandrika said that the renovation of the Putharikandom grounds was getting delayed because of land acquisition issue of around 4 cents of land. The project is expected to be commissioned by January 2012, she said. The renovation of the Nemom Shantivila Hospital has been completed and will be inaugurated this month.
The city mayor added that Rs 13 crore e-governance project and Rs 87 crore Rajiv Awas Yojana are the two major Centrally- funded projects to be implemented in the city next year. As many as 1200 families living in slum areas in Harbour ward will be benefitted by the RAY project.
Launch of Nature Fresh milk brand, Vayomitra project for the elderly and disaster management cell started at the Corporation are some of the new initiatives taken up by the Corporation, Ms Chandrika said.
Deputy mayor G. Happy Kumar, Corporation works standing committee chairman V.S. Padmakumar, health standing committee chairperson, S. Pushpalatha, tax and appeal standing committee chairman P. Shyamkumar and welfare standing committee chairman Palayam Rajan were present at the press conference.
