HDMC earns kudos at state meet

Source: HDMC Website

The reforms introduced by Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation during the past two years to achieve transparency and accountability in its administration are making waves across the state. Many of the practices evolved by it are billed to be replicated by other civic bodies in Karnataka.

HDMC commissioner P Manivannan was specially invited by the City Managers Association of Karnataka (CMAK), comprising heads of urban local bodies to give a power point presentation about the reforms to commissioners of all the civic bodies from the state in Bangalore , last Friday.

This is the second time in the past one year that Manivannan has been invited to Bangalore to give a presentation about the practices adopted by him to tone up the municipal administration. Last time, it was about meticulous planning behind the massive demolition drive he undertook in Hubli-Dharwad to remove encroachments from corporation land.

The top brass of the urban developmentt department, including principal secretary Laxmi Venkataraman and secretary Subhash Chandra, commissioners of the Bangalore Maha Palike and Bangalore Development Authority, and MDs of Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation and Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board attended the presentation. Manivannan told The Times of India: "Out of a total of 12 best practices adopted by various civic bodies in the state, which have been shortlisted for state-level awards by a technical committee of CMAK, five have been from those evolved by HDMC, followed by two from BMP and one each from BDA, Ulllal, Chitradurga, Hosadurga and Doddaballapur."

He said, "The five best practices evolved by HDMC are decentralisation of administration, round-the-clock emergency response/public grievances redressal (ER/PGR) centre, transparency in expenditure, e-governance initiatives and children's movement for civic awareness."

Under decentralisation, he said the twin-cities have been divided into 12 zones, each headed by an assistant commissioner who have been delegated all the powers of the commissioner under the KMC Act, to discharge day-to-day civic functions like issue of birth/ death certificates and building completion certificates.

But observers believe that transparency in expenditure is perhaps the most radical of the reforms initiated by Manivannan in the face of stiff opposition from vested political interests, which has eliminated the nexus between tainted civic officials and civil contractors enjoying the patronage of local councillors.

All pending bills of development works completed by the 15 th of every month are posted on the HDMC website. They are automatically prioritised by an in-built software for full/part payment on the basis of a set formula evolved at the monthly meeting of a designated committee, thus removing influence pedalling for release of payments.

HDMC officials said that citizens are free to point out any lapses in the quality of civic works, which are monitored by third party experts from the local BVB and SDM Engineering Colleges , before the payment is finally released. All payments are made online, directly into the bank accounts of contractors on the approved list of the civic body.

The 24-hour ER/PGR centre has improved the quality of service by instilling accountability while e-governance initiatives have improved the efficacy of the highly understaffed civic body.The children’s Movement for Civic Awareness is an attempt to prepare and motivate adolescents to become responsible citizens of tomorrow.

‘It's all common to come up in life’: KUD Prof on sexual harassment

‘It's all common to come up in life’: KUD Prof on sexual harassment

The Newindpress.com

Thursday August 31 2006 13:52 IST

DHARWAD: One more sexual harassment case has come to light in the Anthropology department of Karnatak University, Dharwad.

A friend of a girl who was harassed by a professor of this department, wrote a letter to the Governor of Karnataka, demanding an inquiry into this case by explaining her friend’s trauma, when she was subjected to sexual harassment.

In a letter, it was disclosed that the victim wanted to register her name with a professor of the Anthropology department, to pursue Ph D. She contacted the professor over the phone, and he asked her to come to his residence to discuss the said matter, in December, 2005.

Apparently, the girl was treated with ‘great respect’ by the professor when she went to his house. He then gave her an article to read and went out, to return after half-an-hour, with a CD in his hand. He told the girl to watch the CD carefully on the player at his place, for it was ‘related’ to her research work.

The unsuspecting girl was shocked to see the professor playing the CD of a blue film. He also tried to molest her saying, “It’s all common to come up in life.”

Horrified with this ‘ugly face’ of the professor, the girl freed herself from his clutches and threatened to cry for help. He let her go with the warning of dire consequences, if she disclosed the incident to anyone. Though she then brought this to the notice of other professors in the department, all of them asked her to keep ‘mum’ and not to disclose it.

Unable to bear this trauma, she went back to her native place where she revealed everything to her parents. When the professor sought the intervention of an influential politician, the girl’s parents were forced to keep quiet.

However, a close friend of the hapless girl, after seeing the trauma her friend underwent for more than five months, decided to take matters in her own hands. She wrote a letter to Governor T N Chaturvedi, with details of her friend’s ordeal in June 2006.

The Governor immediately sent a letter to the then V-C, Dr Khajapeer and the Registrar, asking them to conduct an inquiry into the incident. However, replying to the Governor’s letter, the V-C stated that ‘no such incident had taken place in KUD.’

The under-secretary of the Governor, again sent another letter, ordering for an inquiry, along with an attached copy of the letter sent to them by the girl’s friend, on July 24.

Though a month has lapsed after the letter from the Governor’s office, ordering an inquiry into the incident, incharge V-C, Dr A Murigeppa, has not taken any initiative to look into this matter.

With one more sexual harassment case coming to light in KUD, it is indicative that gullible girl research students are vulnerable to sexual harassment by pervert professors.

Disputed land owner to sue HDMC Commissioner

Disputed land owner to sue HDMC Commissioner

The Newindpress.com

Thursday August 31 2006 13:56 IST

HUBLI: Mahesh Dand, claiming to be owner of a disputed piece of land at Keshwapur here, has decided to file a defamatory suit against Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Commissioner P Manivannan, following the removal of the ‘illegal’ fence and demolition of a temple platform at the disputed land by the Corporation recently.

Disclosing this to reporters here on Wednesday, Dand and his advocate Ramesh Kale said the open site bearing CTS No 366 at Keshwapur, belonged to him as per the Property Act 2005.

Dand said the Corporation authorities were deliberate in their operation to remove the fence and temple platform, since in the past, the required documents had been produced before the Corporation stating the completion of survey work.

He said a Rs 35 lakh defamatory suit would be filed against the Commissioner for ‘causing damage to his image, trespassing and encroachment of his property,’ besides claiming Rs 3.93 lakh for removing the fence and temple structure.

He condemned the Corporation’s move as the Supreme Court had also directed to maintain status quo at the disputed site.

Terrorist outfit threatens devastation by January 26 2008

Terrorist outfit threatens devastation by January 26 2008

The Newindpress.com

Thursday August 31 2006 13:55 IST

HUBLI: A letter, said to have reportedly been sent by the terrorist outfit Al Kaeeda Laskhar-e-Toiba to a private news channel office here, stated that large-scale devastation will take place in the nation before January 26, 2008.

The computerised letter was in English and bore the seal of the old Hubli Post Office, is said to have reached the office on Wednesday afternoon.

Challenging President A P J Abdul Kalam, Vice President B S Shekhawat, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Home Minister Shivaraj Patil, chief ministers of all southern states, Vilasrao Deshmukh of Maharashtra, Narendra Modi of Gujarat and Sheela Dixit of New Delhi, the letter said, “Powerful bombs will definitely explode before January 26, 2008, in cities and districts stated below, and it is a challenge for them to prevent the same if they can...”

The letter has listed almost all the capital cities, ports, railway headquarters, and densely populated major cities of the nation.

The cities of the state that are included in the hit list are:

Hubli, Bangalore, Bagalkot, Belgaum, Bellary, Bidar, Bijapur, Chamaraj nagar, Chikmagalur, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Dharwad, Gadag, Gulbarga, Hassan, Haveri, Kodagu, Kolar, Koppal, Mandya, Mysore, North Canara, Raichur, Shimoga, South Canara, Tumkur and Udupi.

Mischievous act: Police Commissioner Narayan Nadamani said, “It is a mischievous act by miscreants, there is absolutely nothing to be believed in the letter. However, the police have been alerted and people need not be scared of such letters.”