Promises of simple administration and quick services Wednesday, October 17, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: After completing a year in office, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation mayor Himmatsinh Patel held out some more promises for Amdavadis.
"Simple administration, quick services" is the motto adopted by the mayor and the Congress for the following fiscal year in the corporation. But that apart, the mayor could not recount many achievements on the infrastructure development front.
Instead Patel lambasted the BJP and its 13-year rule at the AMC as the reason behind the financial crises of the corporation and the slow progress in development work.
Pointing towards a plethora of problems Patel said, "First it was rescue and rehabilitation, then the post-quake job on clearance of debris and demolition of tottering structures. This lasted for more than four months and made a sizeable dent in the corporation's fund, then came the Fifth Pay Commission's diktat worth Rs 32 crore. The quake also hit our octroi collections as did a market recession."
"Despite all these hurdles we have made significant progress in waiving the 18 per cent penalty on pending property tax cases, effecting a collection of over Rs 32 crore. The Congress, even during peak of summer, managed to reach water where the BJP could not, and till date has been supplying an excess of three crore gallon water, as compared to last year. On the other hand, the BJP has left behind a debt of Rs 422 crore resulting in a draw of Rs 100 crore annually on the corporation's funds," said Patel.
In reply to BJP's allegations of no development project ever since the Congress came to power, the mayor quipped that the ruling party does not believe in spending lakhs in receptions and inaugurations or Rs 4.5 crore in doing-up Tagore Hall. "We are focused on reaching civic facilities like drainage and water to all, especially to the deprived lot living in slums and shanties," said Badruddin Sheikh, the Standing Committee chairman.
Pointing towards the ongoing development work worth Rs 34.06 crore and the work to be undertaken worth Rs 26.34 crore, the Congress showed off the 18 per cent penalty-interest waiver in property tax and to the handing over of 1,811 slum quarters to masses living below poverty line as some of their major achievements.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
14 IAS officers transferred Wednesday, October 17, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
GANDHINAGAR: In the third round of bureaucratic reshuffle since Narendra Modi became chief minister, as many as 14 top IAS officers were transferred on Tuesday.
The major transfers include that of Manjula Subramaniam as principal secretary, energy. Her place at the urban development and urban housing department has been taken over by Sudha Anchalia, serving right now as sports, youth and cultural activities secretary.
P Paneervel, who was in the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority, is the new municipal commissioner of Ahmedabad. D Rajgopalan, MD, Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation, has been made MD of the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation. In Rajgopalan's place, R L Meena has been posted.
The other important transfers are that of D Jagatheesa Pandyan as MD, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Hasmukh Adhia as industries commissioner, P K Pujari as economic affairs secretary, K Kailashnathan as water supplies secretary and chairman of the Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board, and Sunil Sud as chief executive officer, Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board.
Anil Mukim, who is in the CMO, has been given additional charge as information and broadcasting secretary.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
BSNL's mobile service may be delayed Wednesday, October 17, 2001
BY AMIT MUKHERJEE, TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: The ambitious Rs 400-crore plan of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited to launch its cellular services by December this year will be delayed. The project will not be operational before March 2002, officials confirmed.
According to Gujarat Telecom (transmission), BSNL general manager Mohan Lal the sites have been identified but some requirements are still under survey. He said, "While most of the tower-erection work will be over shortly, the equipment is expected to arrive by December."
The area under the network is still being surveyed by a foreign firm, Aircom, which is suggesting few more places for tower installation to facilitate a undisrupted coverage. The procedure for getting clearance from defence establishments and Airport Authority of India is still on.
While he maintained that not much time will be required once the equipment arrives, senior officials in the department maintained that the commissioning of cellular phone service in Gujarat will not take place before March or even April.
The time overrun may even affect the target of new phone connections for Gujarat in the current fiscal which was pegged at over 6.5 lakh. Out of the total target, the mobile phones, as anticipated by the department, were expected to generate at least one lakh new connections in the current fiscal year.
The global tender for the project, which was to connect 74 urban centres covering 70 per cent of the state, was bagged by Indian Telecom Industries which had bid jointly with a US firm Luscent, earlier this year. While the company is setting up towers on the roof-tops hired by BSNL, the corporation is busy hiring land, mostly at municipal schools, on lease to erect the tower for the base terminal station.
"The project could have been completed within the proposed period, if the equipment procurement process was expedited. But the tender has been allotted to a firm which would get things moving as per the convenience of the bidder," says a senior official.
The first phase of the project had a capacity of about 1.75 lakh connections. The first two phases will provide for a capacity to handle 4.84 lakh lines. "All the highways are being covered with towers being installed at every 40 kilometres to enable connectivity at every possible corner," says Lal. The backbone of the service would be nearly 300 towers which would be supporting the network.
Even at Ahmedabad, there would be more than 50 towers which would support the network. The Mobile Switch Centre would be installed at Vastrapur, which will cater to five of the 17 telecom districts of state. The other two MSCs will be set up in Surat and Rajkot to serve the remaining areas.
"It is a big project, and it would take its own time," says BSNL general manager (development) A K Bhargava. He says the infrastructure involving towers, civil and electrical work will almost be ready by December, once the equipment is in place.
Once the project is operational, the project will not only provide better coverage in the state, but would also facilitate cheaper and more effective roaming facility in wake of the BSNL set-up available across the country, says Bhargava.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Community clash claims one Wednesday, October 17, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: A young boy died of injuries on Tuesday morning following clashes between two groups of different communities at Naroda on Monday night. The cause of this riot appeared to be cable business which had reportedly been monopolised by the Bharvads. Several complaints and counter complaints had been lodged earlier at the Naroda police station between the two parties.
Kaushik Dhirubhai Desai (25) succumbed to injuries at the civil hospital on Tuesday morning after being fatally hit with pipes, hockey sticks and swords when a riot broke out around midnight in the Thakkarbapanagar area after one group lodged a complaint with the police against the other.
After this, another complaint was lodged by Arjan Virji Patel at the Naroda police station charging about nine persons of having attacked them for lodging a case against them at the police station on the grounds that they had been threatened by the rival group.
Offences of murder and rioting have been registered against Manjuben Bharvad, Haklo Bharvad, Manu Jeram Patel, Raviraj Praful Thaker and five others after Kaushik died of injuries around 10 am on Tuesday. The immediate provocation was that Arjan's son Vinod had lodged a complaint against Baldev Bharvad around 9 pm the same day, of having threatened him. Vinod and his friends were attacked with swords, pipes and hockey sticks outside the Raghubharvad ni chaali in Thakkarbapanagar around midnight by Bharvad's men.
Around the same time Kokila Ravjibhai Bharvad also lodged a complaint against Vinod and his friends of having ransacked her place. Police sources said that the tension between the groups goes back to over a week when a case was lodged against Baldev Bharvad who runs a cable business. "Vinod was the witness in this case which annoyed Bharvad to no end and he had allegedly threatened him", said police station sources.
Country-made revolver seized
The Kalupur police on Tuesday arrested one Akbarali Usmanali Saiyed, who stays in Babubhai ni chaali in Kalupur, with a country-made revolver.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
CM to hold talks on state annual plan Wednesday, October 17, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
GANDHINAGAR: Chief Minister Narendra Modi will hold discussions with the Planning Commission on October 22 in New Delhi to finalise the state annual plan.
For this, the chief minister held a detailed discussion at a high-level meeting on Monday, attended by finance minister Nitin Patel, planning minister Kaushik Patel, advisor to the chief minister S K Shelat, chief secretary G Subba Rao and others.
For evolving new strategies for the planned development of Gujarat, the chief minister mooted the idea to develop villages as units, keeping in view a decentralised planning process.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
