UNICEF and WB Govt to jointly work for adolescent kids

UNICEF and WB Govt to jointly work for adolescent kids

Posted on September 18, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The United Nations Children’s Educational Fund or UNICEF and West Bengal Government will jointly launch a programme for the welfare of kids attaining puberty.

With an aim of making Kolkata more hospitable for adolescents, a meeting was organised by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in the presence of representatives of UNICEF, State Women and Child Welfare Minister Dr Shashi Panja, Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and other officials.

West Bengal Government, UNICEF and KMC will jointly work for the adolescent kids in slum areas with a focus on children who have dropped out of school or fell prey to trafficking. A pilot project will be launched in Ward No. 26 of KMC area.

Awareness drives for Bengal government’s flagship schemes like Kanyashree and Shishu Sathi will also be conducted. Government will conduct surveys to ensure common people are getting benefits of the schemes, the Minister said.

Chief Field Office of UNICEF in West Bengal, Ashadur Rahman feels that the impact of Kanyashree has been huge at the grassroots. He suggested that Bengal’s successful ‘Kanyashree’ scheme for the empowerment of girl child should be followed as an example by rest of the states in India.

“Self-assessed” property tax in Kolkata from next year

Posted on September 17, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

A property owner in the city will get the option of adopting the Unit Area Assessment (UAA) method of valuation from next April along with the existing method of determining property tax.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation officials believe the UAA system will make tax collection transparent, tax-paying easier and generate more revenue.

After the new method is introduced, corporation inspectors will not visit the taxpayers’ properties as they do now. Instead, taxpayers will make a self-assessment of their properties and fill in a self-declaration form sent by KMC.

The corporation will only charge 10% of the annual valuation of the property , which will be revised every six years, as property tax. This is applicable only if there are no additions or alterations of the property between two assessment years.

If owners make alterations to the property, they have to mention it in the form. If someone tries to hide it, there will be a high penalty, sources said. KMC will also send an objection form where a tax payer can argue against the existing tax rate.

Those who accept a flat 10% hike on annual valuation will be sent a re vised tax bill. Assessees who have made changes to their premises will be sent a fresh tax bill based on their declarations.

And those who disagree will have to submit the objection form that will then go to KMC assessment department for special hearing.

First published in The Times of India, 17.09.2015

KMC takes a step towards cleaner city

Posted on September 3, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

In a bid to make Kolkata cleaner, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has decided to dispose of garbage from the entire city through the modern compactor method.

The State has now sanctioned a special fund for the modernization of the solid waste management scheme. In fact, buoyed by the success of the first phase of the project, even Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee has herself taken keen interest in funding the plan as Kolkata is now being perceived as a cleaner city . With assurance from the State, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation now plans to set up 19 more compactor stations and buy movable compactor machines for areas where the civic body has failed to get land for the stations.

The places where the compactor stations will be set up include Park Circus, NRS Medical College, Esplanade bus terminus, Kalighat temple, Bowbazar, Surjya Sen Street and Naktala. Stations at New Alipore, Golf Club Road and Bondel Road are already built but awaiting inauguration.

Debabrata Majumdar, member, mayor-in-council overseeing the KMC solid waste management department, said the compactor stations and movable compactors reduced the dependence on trucks carrying waste to the Dhapa dumping ground. “Once the project is fully implemented, we hope to get rid of all big vats, which dirty the roads with garbage spilling out, and the rickety trucks that carry waste to Dhapa,” the MMiC said.

In the first phase, the KMC solid waste management department built 43 compactor stations, the first one being set up near the Kalighat tram depot, followed by another one on Southern Avenue.

Inspired by the success of the two stations, the KMC built 42 more such stations. But the civic body had to put on hold the garbage disposal modernization programme for want of funds. The KMC was apparently shocked to find there was no provision for modernization of garbage disposal as the Centre refused to finance it under JNNURM. Before the civic polls last year, the KMC had approached the state to set up compactor stations and the money has finally been sanctioned.

KMC eases parking problems by introducing gadgets

Posted on September 2, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation is introducing hand-held machines to eradicate scope of confusion over parking time. The hand-held parking ticket machines will print the exact fare after calculating the time spent by a car at the parking lot.

The facility, which was introduced at Russell Street and Park Street car parking lots on Tuesday , will be extended to all other major parking areas across the city in phases.

From Wednesday, all parking attendants in the region (Park Street and Russell Street) will carry hand-held machines that will read the time of arrival of a car.

Based on the time, the car owner or the driver will be given a receipt. The attendant will finally generate a bill out of the machine after stipulated hours of parking. The machine has the preloaded feed of KMC authorized parking fees for four and two-wheelers.

Apart from this, KMC has made it mandatory for the cooperative societies manning parking lots to provide uniforms and issue identity cards to each and every attendant for the convenience of car owners.

The new system of parking will also ensure that fare chart boards, name of the cooperative society manning the parking lot and KMC helpline numbers are displayed at vantage points.

KMC has also installed provision of parking taxis in parking lots which will be of much help to the commuters.

Kolkata parks to have India’s first carbon-neutral lighting

Posted on September 2, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The City of Joy is poised to become the first city in the country to have its public parks illuminated by an automated carbon-neutral solar lighting system, reducing the carbon footprint and electricity bills.

The new automated solar lighting system, first installed at Deshapriya Park on a trial basis, would now be extended to 28 other parks by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the custodian of the parks.

The unique part in this solar lighting system is that it is battery-less and connected with the power grid. An automatic control system has been put in place and the lights will be switched on automatically after evening and switched off in the morning.

The pilot project began earlier this year with Deshapriya Park where they have installed 50 solar electric posts having 180 Watt solar panels with LED lights. Earlier the electricity bill used to be Rs 17,000, but now it has come down drastically to less than Rs 2,000. That is 90 per cent savings. With this technology parks can be made 95 per cent carbon-neutral.

Parks under consideration for the project include prominent ones like Md Ali Park, College Square, Maddox Square and Subhas Sarobar Park.

When implemented, the project would result in monthly savings of lakhs of rupees in electricity bills, KMC MMIC Debashis Kumar said.

The system would also be useful for deployment in street lighting system as well as those on highways.

UK and KMC jointly conduct workshop on environment sensitisation

Posted on August 26, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

A British minister met a few councillors of Kolkata Municipal Corporation in Kankurgachhi on Tuesday to sensitise them on environment-related issues.

Desmond Swayne, minister of state for international development, visited the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s community centre where councillors of Borough III were present.

The UK government and the KMC had signed a memorandum of understanding when Prime Minister David Cameron visited the city in 2013.

An important component of the effort to build a more environment-friendly city is to make the councillors, who are public representatives at the lowest level of governance, aware of the threats and challenges facing the city.

The councillors were told about the importance of separating biodegradable and non-degradable waste at source and the hazards of eating from thermocol plates. They were also told how plastic items clog drains and cause waterlogging during the monsoon.

Swayne said he was proud of the partnership between the UK government and the KMC.

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, environment minister Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar and British deputy high commissioner Scott Furssedonn-Wood were present at the programme.

WB Govt to sell onions at fair price shops

Posted on August 24, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

In the wake of a steep rise in the price of onion, the state government has decided to sell onion at Rs.50 per kg at 49 government-run outlets in the city and on its outskirts. Soon, onions at fair price will be made available in the district markets.

The decision was taken at a meeting held by state agriculture marketing minister Arup Roy with the traders. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had directed traders to crack down on illegal hoarders. She also asked the task force to visit markets to ensure that people are not charged exorbitantly.

Roy said that one would be able to buy 500g packet of onion at the cost of Rs.25 per day from the government outlets.

The procedure of selling onions at fixed rate from earmarked stalls will continue till prices ease. Of the 49 outlets, 24 stalls are run by agriculture marketing department and the remaining by horticulture department.

28 parks in Kolkata to be illuminated with solar lights

Posted on August 17, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is taking a giant step to turn green compliant by installing panels to tap solar energy and illuminate 28 major parks and gardens.

With electricity bills shooting through the roof, KMC has asked the one of the leading institutions working on Renewable Energy, to design the project. Already, 50 solar poles have been installed at Deshapriya Park, which entailed a cost of Rs 40 lakh. The project will get Department of International development funding.

All solar street lighting systems that had come up earlier were battery-operated. But, it was for the first time in the country that a street lighting system is being generating power through solar panels having not battery. There is a micro-inverter that is being fixed with the panel that converts solar energy.

After monitoring the system since February this year, KMC authorities noticed a drastic 80% fall in electricity bill at Deshapriya Park. Around Rs 36,000 per month is being saved now at Deshapriya Park. Encouraged by the result, the KMC has taken the decision to light up 28 other parks, including Md Ali Park, College Square, Maddox square, Subhas Sarobar Park and others.

About Rs 35,000 to Rs 50,000 for big parks and Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 for medium-sized parks will be saved per month once solar lights are installed. Around Rs 8 crore roughly will be saved every year. But funding is an issue for which the KMC authorities have taken up the issue with state power minister Manish Gupta and a committee has been formed for the task.

The KMC electricity department has been entrusted with surveying the selected 28 parks to submit a report within a month and the authorities plan to start implementing the project from this year end.

Transgender youth to be Eco Park guides

Posted on August 13, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

For transgender people and sex-workers’ children, finding employment and respectability have never been easy. There has been little hope for the marginalized people despite sustained campaigns and alterations in their legal status. In an effort to change the scene, the state-owned Hidco, along with an NGO, will appoint 15 transgender persons and sex workers’ kids to work as guides at Eco Park in Rajarhat. The new service, for which visitors will be able to choose and appoint guides online, will be inaugurated on August 15.

The 480-acre park will launch Eco Walk that aims at making “freedom more meaningful to the youth from marginalized background. These people are refused jobs for no fault of theirs. But they could be trained to work in sectors like tourism, like in south-east Asian countries. The fact that a government agency has taken the initiative to employ them will go a long way in turning things around. Every visitor will have to pay Rs 500 for the two-hour walk. HIDCO is aiming at NRIs and foreign visitors, though the facility will be available to all. They will get deserve equal opportunities. By appointing them, the authorities hope to make a beginning for them.

The West Bengal Government has taken special initiatives to upgrade status of the highly marginalised and vulnerable transgenders who are lagging behind on human development indices mainly in the areas of education and employment.

The first meeting of the West Bengal Transgender Development Board (WBTDB), set up by the state government was held at Nabanna, the State Secretariat ion July. Constituted through a resolution of the cabinet, the Board comprised of four official and nine non-official members, who were present in the meeting to discuss among other things, rehabilitation and welfare of the transgender community.

Recently Prof Manabi Bandyopadhyay took charge of the Krishnanagar Women’s College, becoming the country’s first transgender principal of the country.

Over 600 KMC parking lots being prepared to accommodate Taxis

Posted on August 13, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Starting September 1, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is transforming its designated parking lots into taxi stands. These free of-cost facilities are expected to bring down the refusal rate significantly as parking facilities would ensure minimum idle runs for cabbies and even make shorter runs profitable.

To hold taxi operators accountable, the civic body is planning to bring every parking lot under CCTV surveillance. The camera feed will be shared with local traffic police guard to rein in errant cabbies. This apart, introduction of hand-held parking meters will also keep private vehicles and parking lot operators on their toes.

Announcing the plan to introduce these meters by September, Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee said the device will bring transparency and make sure that there is no or little pilferage in the collection of parking fees by agencies.

“Each parking facility would accommodate at least two taxis and at best six taxis, depending on the size of the lot.But more taxis will be accommodated if they are closer to market or hospital so that people get taxis without hassle,“ said the Kolkata Mayor after a meeting with principal secretary (transport), the KMC Commissioner, the PVD director and other officials.

“Since a majority of parking lots are at prime locations, passengers can avail taxis easily. Idle run of taxis leave cabbies bleeding and force them to look for long-distance passengers so that their idle runs get compensated. But this prac tice is expected to stop now.

Also, there will be better signage and clear marking of each slot so that more cars are not packed into parking lots. A recent survey by KMC revealed that vehicles nearly three to four times of the designated figure get parked. Parking meters can be used to integrate on-street parking policy.

KMC will also go for construction of vertical automated parking lots in PPP model. The government has agreed for viability gap funding. Besides, the civic body will relay the road leading to Behala Flying Club as the motor-training hub of the public vehicle department, which will have test tracks of international standard, is coming up there.