Palike's all-party panel to fix ground rent for OFCs

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike will form a committee comprising corporators from all the three major political parties and BBMP Chief Engineer to fix the ground rent for the Optical Fibre Cables (OFCs).

The order was passed by Mayor B S Sathyanarayana when the corporators pointed out that the Palike is losing revenue from OFCs in the absence of ground rent. The Yediyur corporator N R Ramesh drew the attention of Sathyanarayana towards an illegally laid OFC near the Tagore Circle underpass.

The Mayor said the committee will comprise of six members- three BJP corporators, one corporator each from the Congress and the JD(S), and the TVCC Chief Engineer.

The issue of frozen works was raised by the JD(S) floor leader R Prakash who alleged that the Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner (TVCC) had ‘scribbled some unnecessary comments in its report about certain works.’

“The TVCC’s comments have stalled all the works in Bangalore. It is leading to numerous problems for us,” said Prakash. Congress corporator Rizwan too backed Prakash and demanded the Mayor and the commissioner to resume the frozen works.

In his reply, the BBMP Commissioner Lakshminarayana said starting the frozen works should be backed by the financial provisions. “If there is no financial backing to certain works then such works cannot be started,” said Lakshminarayana.

Round table clearance

To expedite the movement of files for speedy completion of works, Sathyanarayana passed an order that once in a week, there will be a sort of file clearance camp in each zone where projects can be cleared on a single day. On that particular day of the week, all the officers will sit on a round table and clear files without any delay. This will save a lot of time. The order was passed when the Rajarajeshwari Nagar MLA and corporator Munirathna raised the issue of unnecessary delay in clearing files.

He reminded Sathyanarayana that his tenure as Mayor is quite short while the task before him is huge. Keeping this in view, he should devise a mechanism to speed up the office work to get his dream fulfilled. Agreeing with Munirathna, the Mayor directed the officers not to consume much time for clearing files. The Palike will hand over the construction of quarters for the Pourakarmikas at Kadirenapalya to the Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL), said Commissioner M Lakshminarayana.

He made the announcement in the BBMP Council on Wednesday after the BJP corporator Bhuvaneshwari raised the issue of poor residential facility at the dilapidated quarters for the pourakarmikas. She demanded to know why the Palike has turned a blind eye to the plight of the living condition of the pourakarmikas and demanded the BBMP to make some quick arrangements for them. Replying to her query, Lakshminarayana said the Palike had approached the Police Housing Corporation to construction residential quarters for the pourakarmikas, but after its refusal, the Palike has approached the KRIDL.