By Vishwas Dass
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Dec 20: The state’s largest civic body, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), is literally struggling to execute plethora of projects for the past several years.
Nearly ten major civic projects are lingering because of the lack of resources and the callousness of the officials of the civic body. These include development of the BMC headquarters building, solid waste treatment plant, a multi disciplinary hospital, foot over bridge (FOB), public toilets, night shelters, a modern abattoir, energy efficient street lights, re-development of Unit I haat and an urban transport system.
One of the most ambitious plans of the civic body, the establishment of its headquarters building at Madhusudan Nagar spread across five acres, is caught in controversy. The project was conceived by BMC several years ago but other than getting around 1.5 acres of land from the general administration department (GAD) nothing has been done.
Recently, the foundation-stone laying ceremony of the new office building was postponed after GAD and comptroller and auditor general (CAG) locked horn over ownership of the land in Madhusudan Nagar.
The corporation is facing difficulties as it is not able to generate enough revenue from holding taxes to give a boost to civic services. Every year it sets a target of collecting Rs 40 crore as holding taxes but collects half the amount.
For 20 years the government has not made any fresh recruitment for city’s civic body while the population on other hand has increased tremendously. The urban local body had obtained corporation status in 1994 when the city’s population was hovering around 3.5 lakh. Now this has touched the mark of around one million.
Another important project, the solid waste treatment plant, has also failed to take shape. An agreement has been signed between housing and urban development (H&UD) department and a private firm that is likely to complete the facility by 2016 for the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. The project was proposed at least eight years ago.
The 100-bed multi disciplinary hospital at Gadakana, on the other hand, got some push recently after its foundation stone was laid during BMC’s self government day.
