Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation to seek police help for raze drive

BHUBANESWAR: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will urge the State Government to provide adequate police personnel during eviction drives in city. The decision was taken after the Central Eviction Monitoring Committee (CEMC), comprising officials of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and BMC, faced stiff opposition by local vendors during a demolition drive at Ashoka Market on October 28. The vendors vehemently opposed the demolition for which the officials were forced to halt the drive.

“Regular enforcement activities will be carried out to check encroachments on drains and other public properties. We will urge the State Government for providing adequate police personnel during eviction drives,” the BMC officials said.It was also decided that steps will be taken to address the grievances of the people related to social welfare schemes like National Food Security Act, Madhu Babu Pension Yojana, and others. “Field level grievance meetings will be organised in the presence of ward officers and Zonal Deputy Commissioners. A cluster will be formed, comprising five to six wards, where meetings will be conducted,” a BMC official said and added that the meetings will be treated as a single window grievance redressal system.

Similarly, sub-zone wise review will be conducted in a span of 15 days for monitoring of sanitation and other civic activities. A tender will be floated for construction of drainage channel-4 and they held a meeting with the Works Department recently to expedite the entire process. Steps have been undertaken to construct a drain near Iskcon Temple which witnesses waterlogging immediately after rains, they said.
The civic body has also passed a resolution to include Sijua village under its jurisdiction, where All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is situated. Around 436 acres of land, including the village which comes under Ransinghpur panchayat, will be merged with the civic body. BMC will install street lights, construct drains, provide city bus services, among others in the area.