<p>Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat on Wednesday launched mapping of public assets in Mangaluru taluk on a pilot basis – another first to its credit. <br /><br />A joint initiative of the ZP, with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Alva’s Institute of Engineering and Technology here, it is expected to be completed within a month’s time.<br /><br />The project is aimed at documenting the public assets in 56 gram panchayat limits in Mangaluru taluk with the help of a dedicated Bhuvan Panchayat Asset Mapping App, developed by the centre and already in use for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), among other projects. It is funded by the ISRO, and executed with the help of Alva’s and nine other educational institutions across the country.<br /><br />272 assets<br />Explaining about the activity, Vivek Alva from Alva’s Education Foundation said, “Barring lands, a total of 272 types of public assets in the villages will be mapped, with a dedicated five-member team of local students formed in each of the villages to carry out the activities. They will work in tandem with panchayat development officers (PDOs).”<br /><br />The assets include schools, colleges, libraries, community health centres, veterinary hospitals, anganwadi centres, power projects, irrigation projects, waste management units, post offices and banks.<br /><br />NRSC lead<br />Briefing about the project, scientist Jayasheelan from National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO, Hyderabad said, “It is aimed at generating and providing satellite image maps for the entire country a base for decentralised planning. To prepare thematic and base layers on 1:1000 scale using satellite image maps and cadastral maps vectorisaton and geo-referencing (land use, land cover, drainage, water bodies, slope classes maps). In the later stage, a comprehensive web portal will be developed to enable stakeholders to plan on their needs and requirements.”<br /><br />One-month time<br />ZP CEO M R Ravi said, “It is time the technology is used to the maximum to deal with the complaints that the country is poor in documentation. Although the country has resources at its disposal and works to claim credit for, it is still lagging behind in documenting the same. It will also help in planning demand based facilities.”<br /><br />He appealed to the PDOs to complete the project within May, as the onset of the rainy season from June will make it difficult to carry out the work.<br /></p>
<p>Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat on Wednesday launched mapping of public assets in Mangaluru taluk on a pilot basis – another first to its credit. <br /><br />A joint initiative of the ZP, with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Alva’s Institute of Engineering and Technology here, it is expected to be completed within a month’s time.<br /><br />The project is aimed at documenting the public assets in 56 gram panchayat limits in Mangaluru taluk with the help of a dedicated Bhuvan Panchayat Asset Mapping App, developed by the centre and already in use for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), among other projects. It is funded by the ISRO, and executed with the help of Alva’s and nine other educational institutions across the country.<br /><br />272 assets<br />Explaining about the activity, Vivek Alva from Alva’s Education Foundation said, “Barring lands, a total of 272 types of public assets in the villages will be mapped, with a dedicated five-member team of local students formed in each of the villages to carry out the activities. They will work in tandem with panchayat development officers (PDOs).”<br /><br />The assets include schools, colleges, libraries, community health centres, veterinary hospitals, anganwadi centres, power projects, irrigation projects, waste management units, post offices and banks.<br /><br />NRSC lead<br />Briefing about the project, scientist Jayasheelan from National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO, Hyderabad said, “It is aimed at generating and providing satellite image maps for the entire country a base for decentralised planning. To prepare thematic and base layers on 1:1000 scale using satellite image maps and cadastral maps vectorisaton and geo-referencing (land use, land cover, drainage, water bodies, slope classes maps). In the later stage, a comprehensive web portal will be developed to enable stakeholders to plan on their needs and requirements.”<br /><br />One-month time<br />ZP CEO M R Ravi said, “It is time the technology is used to the maximum to deal with the complaints that the country is poor in documentation. Although the country has resources at its disposal and works to claim credit for, it is still lagging behind in documenting the same. It will also help in planning demand based facilities.”<br /><br />He appealed to the PDOs to complete the project within May, as the onset of the rainy season from June will make it difficult to carry out the work.<br /></p>
