PATNA:
Bihar chief minister
Nitish Kumar on Monday asked the officials of major municipal bodies to round up all animals wandering on urban roads and lodge them at nearby ‘Gaushala’ (cow shelter home) to keep the urban streets free of stray animals who sometimes become the reason behind accident.
Addressing an urban development department’s function here after inaugurating new system of door-to-door garbage collection in all 75 wards of the
Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) area on the eve of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, CM said the rounding-up of stray animals would not only ensure cleanliness in the urban areas but also increase income of cow shelter homes because it would take a fine from the animal’s owner for releasing them.
Nitish said he had already asked all the DMs to ensure rounding-up the animals to keep the urban roads free of them. “In Patna, the former DM Sanjay Kumar Agrawal has started rounding up the animals and keeping them at Gaushala. But now, Agrawal has been transferred. It is duty of the new DM to ensure rounding up of the stray animals,” CM said.
He said it was a matter of great happiness that the PMC was going to launch door-to-door garbage collection drive on the eve of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary because ‘cleanliness’ was his one of the main messages.
CM, through a remote control, also laid foundation stones for a multi-crore waste-to-energy plant, which would be set at the outskirt of the city by a US company. The plant would start production of 280 MW electricity per day after a year. Patna’s urban areas produces around 750 metrc ton waste per days.
CM said the owner of the plant would purchase municipal waste as resource and pay Rs 770 per metric ton to the PMC for purchase of waste.
Nitish further asked the urban development and housing department (UDHD) officials to take all necessary steps to ensure that all 143 urban local bodies (ULBs) of the state are declared open defecation free (ODF) by October 2, 2019, and safe drinking water are supplied to all households by October 2, 2020.
CM also asked the UDHD’s principal secretary Chaitanya Prasad to do necessary works for creating a separate engineering organisation in the department to ensure speedy implementation of all development schemes in different ULBs.
Responding to a demand of
Patna Mayor Sita Sahu, CM announced that the rate of honorarium being paid to ward councillor of the municipal bodies would be increased. He said the UDHD would soon work out the new rate of honorarium.
Sahu, in her speech, said the PMC ward councillors are being paid Rs 2,500 per months as honorarium and urged the CM to make an honourable increase in the monthly payment.
UDHD minister Suresh Kumar Sharma also spoke on the occasion.
