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Saturday, July 4, 2009

Berhampur Municipal Corporation only on the signboard

RP Tripathy
After several years of demands from the city residents the State Government granted Municipal Corporation status to Berhampur. But, except change in its nomenclature there is no other change visible in the structure of the new local body. Infact, the former Executive Officer of Berhampur Municipal Council is still working as the Commissioner in-charge of Berhampur Municipal Corporation. In the Gazette Notification declaring Berhampur as a Municipal Corporation the State Government revised the boundary limits of Berhampur city by including several Panchayats, which have since been subsumed in the Corporation, but no election has taken place to give representation to these areas in the City Corporation and ensure development of these peri-urban areas. Not only that, the State Government has kept Berhampur city fund starved over the years and now the city has become a big garbage with the Municipal Corporation looking helpless to deal with the problems of waste management and drainage in the absence of man power and honest and sincere officers. The Chief Minister himself witnessed the deluge that Berhampur was in 2003 and boats were deployed inside the city to provide relief to the people. Man-made problems like this are cropping up as the State Govt is not showing any interest on the sewerage project for the city. This is really pitiable if one contrasts this with the full support of the State Government for Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. (for more on this visit:http://www.dharitri.com/040709/story1.asp)

In view of this ever mounting problems of the city there is a need to appoint an honest and sincere IAS officer as Commissioner of Berhampur Municipal Corporation who can make Berhampur a livable place and who can put an end to the chaos that the City is in, as far as its traffic, civic amenities, water shortage and pollution are concerned. Besides this, other officials who are supposed to be appointed to various offices on account of the City having been upgraded as a Municipal Corporation must be expedited. Further, special budgetary provision for the city must be made by the state Government to have a ring-road on its outskirts and to implement the sewerage project for the City. Inclusion of the city under JNNURM will greatly help in infrastructure development and hence its inclusion under this central scheme must be explored. Sincere action on all these above issues is a must for making Berhampur as the growth engine of South Orissa.