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Community Development

City to be declared open defecation free on Oct. 2

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The Hindu    21.07.2016  

City to be declared open defecation free on Oct. 2

All houses in the city will have toilets and new public toilets will come up in 34 locations by October 2 when the city will be declared open-defecation free, Mayor Harinath has said.

He told presspersons here on Wednesday that as per a survey carried out in May 2015, there were 339 houses in the city which did not have toilets. Grants were being given to these residents to construct toilets under the Swachh Bharath Mission. While around 10 wards would be declared open-defecation free on August 15, the whole city would be declared so on October 2, he said. Mr. Harinath asked people, who did not have toilets for their houses, to approach the Mangaluru City Corporation for grants by August 13. He said they were yet to decide on the penal action to be taken against those seen defecating in the open after October 2.

Chairman of Standing Committee on Health, Kavita Sanil, said that corporation had identified places such as the City Central Market, Pumpwell Junction, Morgan’s Gate, Urwa Stores, Kadri Junction and 29 other locations where new toilets would be constructed. These toilets would be built and operated by private agencies and it would be in addition to the 21 existing ones. Those operating the existing pubic toilets had been directed to maintain them in a proper manner, she said.

Mr. Harinath said that Urban Development Minister R. Roshan Baig would lay the foundation stone for construction of a dining hall for the Town Hall on Sunday.

Mr. Baig would also launch the first phase of building market complexes in Alake and Kavoor. The Minister would inaugurate the work on improving Kavoor Junction.

He would inaugurate the new night shelter in Bunder area, which had been built at a cost of Rs. 99.8 lakh, Mr. Harinath said.

 

Mobile app for slum dwellers

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The Hindu      08.07.2016   

Mobile app for slum dwellers

Slum dwellers in the Capital will soon be able to register complaints of malfunctioning or dirty toilets with just a tap on their mobile phones. The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) is planning to launch a mobile app for swift resolution of issues related to community toilets.

“The demand to have a common grievance redressal mechanism for toilets was repeatedly raised by inhabitants of slums and JJ clusters. So, we have designed an app to ensure time-bound redressal of complaints, which will be open to public within a few months,” informed DUSIB officials.

Simplified process

The app has been colour-coded keeping in mind the literacy level of the slum dwellers. Anyone who wants to suggest anything about a particular community toilet will just have to tap on one of the three colours. “Tapping red will mean a toilet is in pathetic or bad condition and needs immediate action. Yellow means good, whereas, green would indicate that the unit is in excellent condition,” said a senior official.

These coloured ratings will be available for various complaints spread across 8-10 categories, which would include parameters like cleanliness, sewage line (if its overflowing or not), condition of the WCs, water availability and so on.

For complaints that do not fall in any of the categories, a separate box will be provided at the bottom of the page where one can type out the specific problem.

As soon as a complaint is registered, an auto-generated mail will be sent to the executive engineer of the area, who will have to get the problem rectified within 48 hours. The entire system will be monitored by superiors.

In case of inability of taking any action due to some reason, the matter will be referred to the Chief Engineer and then the Chief Executive Officer.

At present, the app is being used for trial by DUSIB for its internal monitoring.

 

GHMC to build night shelters at four hospitals

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The Hindu      22.01.2015   

GHMC to build night shelters at four hospitals

The GHMC has initiated steps for building night shelters for patients and their attendants at four main hospitals of the city at a cost of Rs. 10.88 crore.

The night shelters would be coming up at Koti ENT Hospital, Niloufer Hospital, Osmania General Hospital and NIMS. The GHMC Special Officer and Commissioner, Somesh Kumar, on Wednesday issued orders for calling tenders to take up the work on these shelters, according to a press release.

Mr. Kumar also issued orders promoting 50 Class IV employees, who had required educational qualifications.

 


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