Saturday, April 4, 2015

Camp Approach for Public Service Delivery

In the Land Manager's office in Urban Development Department, the Right to Public Services Act has imposed certain deadlines for delivery of services like mutation of names in leased plots of Salt Lake, assignment of land on payment of prescribes fees fees, non residential use of residential buildings as per notification (there are 40 uses permitted see post at http://principalsecretarysblog.blogspot.in/2014/08/mixed-planning.html , 20 more will be added in next week ) , mortgage permission and so on. But due to some accumulated backlog, older applications, applications filed earlier to the promulgation of the Act,  were not receiving attention. So we decided to sit down in Camp Mode with all senior officers yesterday on Good Friday (a holiday) and all of us including Mira Roy, Additional Secretary, me, Atanu Palodhi Special Secretary, Dinesh Mandal Land Manager, Debabrata Chatterjee Competent Authority, Revenue Officer and all other staff and officers sat down in the departmental section itself and disposed of many cases. We all agreed to continue the drive till all backlog was cleared. I am also in the process of engaging IT professionals and a Project Management Unit. Already we have set up a Help & Facilitation Desk with provision for on-line payment of prescribed fees. A photo:

Good Friday in UD

1 comment:

  1. Great to hear this. Thanks Sir.... !!!! It is for effective leaders like you that Govt officials are becoming more delivery and governance oriented. Plus in a cash strapped state like ours, it helps in getting the State Govt their due revenue. Help Desk for online payment is a fabulous idea.

    10 suggestions:

    1. In smart buildings, lets use the rain water harvesting system for ground water recharge. Many cities and municipalities like BBMP in Bangalore has made this mandatory . This helps in replenishing the ground water level. This will be a futuristic step. We exploit ground water indiscriminately and should recharge it as well.

    2. All smart city initiatives like WIFI, Library , online payment for taxes and other stuffs etc are happening now only in New Town. Lets make it happen to some extent in other cities also which WB Govt has planned to make smart cities ( I think there are 10 cities in the list) .I think, if we can show some progress in other cities as well, this will help us in getting central funds. At least, we can start some of these initiatives in Kalyani and Ganga Sagar. Ganga Sagar is attracting tourists throughout the year and Kalyani is already having many research institutions and educational hubs. It will be great if we can start some of these in Bolpur as well. This place attracts many foreign tourists and that would give them a nice impression of the country.

    3. BRTS Project in EM Byepass is progressing at a faster rate recently , I heard. Thanks Sir. I request you to expedite the 4 laning of Kalyani Expressway as well. This is a long pending project.

    4. JNNURM is stopped I know. But can you please find some way for funds to build the flyover in Ruby Hospital and Jadavpur Thana signal? These are places of big traffic bottleneck and flyover is needed I think since last 5 years.

    5. Alternate connection of South Kolkata to New Town. I know funds is an issue but is needed. Chingrihata is just too overcrowded during office time.

    6. Another Road show for the New Town finance Hub in Mumbai. Every time Mumbai visit has given us investments and I think its high time we get the pvt sector banks investments in New Town (Axis, HDFC, ICICI, Yes Bank etc). GIFT Ahmedabad has got the IFSC status. If SEZ is an issue, can we get the 50 acre SEZ land by Saporji Pallonji opoosite to Infosys for this by partnering with the SP Group? They are yet to start construction on the land and planning to ask for non-SEZ status because they are thinking there will not be much demand for IT SEZ in Bengal in near future.

    7. Markets in AA 3. There is till no market in AA3 . Housing projects like Unitech, RoseDale, SP Mass Housing, DLF , Elita Garden Vista are all operational with thousands of families living there. They are forced to buy from hawkers or need to travel. HIDCO / WB Govt is also losing money from the sale taxes of a proper market.

    8. Many companies, groups and Trusts who have got land in New Town have just kept their land idle by constructing a boundary wall. Can HIDCO nudge them a little? This will generate a lot of jobs for construction workers and State Govt will also make money through plan approval, taxes on cement , steel sold etc

    9. Policies for the amenities in township projects. I think this is yet to be published. Lets have wide 70-80 feet roads, proper footpaths, underground electric cabling, underground telephone cabling, underground sewerage, all green city initiatives and proper play area.

    10. Online ticket booking for Rabindra Tirtha, Nazrul Tirtha . Also required is the online booking for the Glass House by corporates / individuals if HIDCO wants to earn money by making Glass House available for rent. If you think for Glass House , we need many more formalities, we can make a part of the formalities online as well as checking for availability online and the rest of the steps in HIDCO office.

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