The election bugle may have been sounded, but with the Municipal Administration & Urban Development Department (MA&UD) not part of it in the districts, it has been busy preparing the status report on the ground situation with regard to dwellings, civic amenities and infrastructure in the newly-formed 68 municipal areas.
With the Government not clearing the representation to fill the vacancies for various wings of the civic bodies, the office of the Commissioner & Director of Municipal Administration (CDMA) has already made a rejig of the existing personnel in the erstwhile panchayats, choosing municipal commissioners from the wings of sanitation, finance and town planning. It has also estimated that ₹117.94 crore will be required for taking up 346 immediate works on priority and the general funds available are to the tune of ₹40.92 crore.
Issues identified
Municipal solid waste management and sanitation has been identified as important issues and it was noted that 21 of the newly-formed Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) do not have any identified garbage dump yard.
There are 816 tricycles, 29 autos, 60 tractors and 70 fogging machines in total for all the municipalities. While there are 107 public toilets, 285 more are required. With regard to individual household toilets, if the demand is close to a lakh, 61,464 of the sanctioned 76,262 have been completed while the balance of 14,958 have to be done.
The department has identified that ₹17.94 crore is required for construction of 14,988 individual household toilets at a cost of ₹12,000 with the Centre providing ₹4,000 and rest by the State.
A sum of ₹2.80 crore is required for construction of 285 more public toilets at a cost of ₹98,000 each with the Centre chipping in with ₹39,200.
For developing dumping yards in 31 new municipalities, ₹22.32 crore is required while 816 autos have to be purchased at a cost of ₹14.28 crore.
Haritha Haram progress
With regard to ‘Haritha Haram’, the tree saplings programme, of the target of 2.40 crore plants, close to 14 lakh saplings have been planted and for the remaining 2.26 crore, ₹235.9 crore is required at ₹104.2 per each plant for raising them in nurseries, planting and maintenance.
Though it has been decided that the functionaries of the new ULBs will be trained by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), other issues like video-conference facilities and revenue generation are yet to be sorted out.