Kartik Lokhande's blog

Staff Reporter Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Maharashtra Public Health Department have jointly organised a workshop to prepare ‘Heat Action Plan’ for Nagpur city, on Friday and Saturday at Hotel Tuli Imperial, Ramdaspeth here. Surprisingly, NMC is ‘clueless’ about either heat effect in the city, factors contributing to rise in heat, and other related aspects. Dr Milind Ganvir, Deputy Director (Health), and Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, Deputy Director Health Services, told the reporters in a press conference on Thursday that the workshop was titled ‘Understanding Climate Change and Heat for Developing Heat Action Plan for Nagpur City’. In 2013, the first Heat Action Plan (HAP) in Asia was prepared in Ahmedabad (Gujarat). Now, the experts from Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) will be providing guidance for preparing HAP for Nagpur city. Surprisingly, NMC Health Department had only the statistics on heat stroke patients in past 10 years. “No. We have not assessed or...

  * Directs the civic administration to issue circular within seven days regarding the committee’s decision of staying hike in development charges Staff Reporter Standing Committee of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), on Wednesday, asked the civic administration to issue a circular regarding stay ordered by the committee to usurious hike in development charges. Standing Committee, which had stayed the hike in development charges on April 10, expressed a ‘strong displeasure’ over the administration not issuing a circular to this effect despite passage of almost a month. “Standing Committee had passed a resolution on April 10, staying the usurious hike in development charges. Since then, the NMC administration was expected to implement the decision of the committee and issue a circular. However, as the administration has failed in doing so, members of Standing Committee expressed a strong displeasure over this,” said Ramesh Singare, Chairman of Standing Committee....

* Accuses civic administration of effecting the rise in development charges without consulting Standing Committee or General Body Staff Reporter Friday brought a double delight for Nagpurians. For, on this day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ongoing tour of France yielded an agreement under which France will be investing in developing Nagpur as a ‘Smart City’. And, on this day, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) Standing Committee stayed the implementation of usurious hike in development charges that was haunting the Nagpurians for past some time. “For the past few days, media has been pointing out that the hike in development charges was exorbitant and would prove to be a hurdle for commoners in realising their dream of building own house. Several complaints were received at the offices of Mayor, Standing Committee, and Ruling Party Leader. Hence, in the meeting held today, Standing Committee decided to stay the implementation of the hike,” said Ramesh Singare, Chairma...

* NMC to create special cell to monitor solid waste management Staff Reporter “There are no plans to shift Bhandewadi dumping yard elsewhere for now at least till the year 2017. We are searching for a place to shift the dumping yard,” said Ramesh Singare, Chairman of Health Committee of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). Singare, however, refused to disclose the areas outside the city limits where land was identified for shifting of dumping yard from Bhandewadi. “We cannot disclose it at this stage, as there is likelihood of protests from people in those areas,” he added while addressing a press conference in Mayor’s chamber on Friday evening. Replying to a question, Singare and senior corporator Sunil Agrawal said that 973 tonnes of garbage was being lifted daily. Of this, 850 tonnes was garbage and remaining was silt and stones. In all, 208 vehicles had been deployed to collect garbage. Asked about action taken against the contractor firm that had attracted stricture...