Indian Express : B S Vohra

URJA Awards !

Dear Mr. Vohra ji,

Heartiest congratulations on conferment of the URJA Award adding one more feather to your over laden turban! You richly deserve it and much more!! May God bless you for doing more pioneering things in East Delhi and prompt to contest the ensuing election to the EDMC in April next. You know our problems and woes more than anybody else! You are down to earth with no 'air'! Your qualities of heart are appreciable and commendable. Hence you have all the requisite qualifications which nobody aspiring to become Councillor could have! It is mere hyperbole but arising from the core of my heart.

With blessings and best wishes for many more laurels in the years to come!

Balu TK/Anand Vihar

With eye on 2017 elections, NDMC announces development works, funds

Funds to Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) to carry out minor repairs and instructions for cleaning of drains in unauthorised colonies may not seem like major announcements.

But, for the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), which has been struggling to pay salaries on time, these announcements on Tuesday were seen as efforts to please residents ahead of the 2017 elections.

The civic body has been reeling under a financial crisis for over a year now, with development works on standstill. On Tuesday, however, top leaders of the BJP-ruled corporation announced that each of the 104 councillors would be allowed to sanction Rs. 25,000 each for 20 RWAs in a ward for minor repair and maintenance works. Also, drains in unauthorised colonies, which are currently maintained by the Delhi government agencies, would be de-silted by the corporation, which is only responsible for sweeping in such colonies.

Vijay Prakash Pandey, the Leader of the House in the NDMC, said that the Engineering Department and the Department of Environment Management Services would carry out repair and maintenance of storm water drains in unauthorised colonies.

“The decision has been taken to keep the unauthorised colonies free of waterlogging issues during the monsoon,” said Mr. Pandey.

In a bid to decentralise funding of minor works, the corporation decided that councillors will be able to allocate Rs. 25,000 a year each to 20 RWAs in their respective wards.

This amount would be used for petty repairs and maintenance works in municipal parks, lights and other infrastructure.

The chairperson of the Standing Committee, Parvesh Wahi, said the move would help citizens carry out minor works quickly as it would be done without floating a tender. The funds would be disbursed and monitored by the junior engineer of the area.

No fund allocation yet

While both these decisions can be seen as citizen-friendly, the NDMC has not allocated any extra funds for the same. Funds for the RWAs are supposed to be allocated from the area councillor’s development fund. But, due to the financial crisis, the councillor’s fund has not been disbursed on time.

Leader of Opposition Mukesh Goel said these were “merely election promises” and could not be implemented as no budgetary allocations had been made.

“We haven’t been able to pay salaries on time, or disburse pensions. So how can we carry out these works? Plus, there are hundreds of RWAs in a ward, and sometimes multiple RWAs in the same colony. How will we decide the allocation? It will become a political tool,” said Mr. Goel.

He added that last financial year, the corporation had allocated Rs.3 crore for each councillor, but only Rs.50 lakh was disbursed.

This year, he said, the councillors would get only Rs.25 lakh, which was insufficient for carrying out the necessary works.

with thanks : The Hindu : LINK

URJA Leadership Awards to B S Vohra, Rajiv Kakria, Saurabh Gandhi !

एमब्युलेन्स को रास्ता नही दिया तो 2000 का जुर्माना

एमब्युलेन्स को रास्ता नही दिया तो 2000 का जुर्माना. बात तो बिल्कुल सही है. पर इस बात का जवाब कोन देगा कि आख़िर दिल्ली मे रास्ते है किधर. हर तरफ एंक्रोचमेंट, हर तरफ ट्रॅफिक जाम, इन्नर लेन्स मे तो ना ट्रॅफिक पोलीस, ना रेड लाइट, ना कोई देखने वाला, ना कोई सुनने वाला. ऐसे मे कोन रास्ता देगा और कोन चालान काटेगा ? मेन रोड्स पर तो इतनी भीड़ होती है पीक अवर्स मे कि आप एक इंच भी इधर से उधर नही हो सकते. तो फिर इस क़ानून का औचितय ही क्या है ? और अगर आप एमब्युलेन्स के आगे लगे कैमरे से चालान काटोगे तो आधी दिल्ली के चालान कट जाएँगे.

Doctors Day - Blood Donation camp at Krishna Nagar : Dr V K Monga

Supported by :
B S Vohra
East Delhi RWAs Joint Front - Federation
www.RWABhagidari.com
https://RWABhagidari.blogspot.in

Shield Initiative !

Team Shield is working on environmental awareness campaigns since 2009. And in 2011 our team won Earth hour award sponsored by HT and WWF. With that money we did a small solar awareness project in Jagdamba camp Sheikh Sarai and raised awareness on solar energy at number of places .

SHIELD,s WoW Delhi team (women of Wards) started working on No Polybag campaign in 2012 with vendors of patri bazar in South Delhi,but due to lack of availability of options and a weak govt policy the project slowed down as paperbags were not successful and people by and large never carried a shopping bag ,but neverthless admitted to its need.

In 2015 started working with women in three different areas of Delhi.The project involved buying of waste cloth of factories and making cloth bags of assorted sizes.The idea was to generate sustainable income for ladies who do not venture out of houses ,in Indian marriages a girl is gifted with a sewing machine and for us it became easy to find ladies with skill for stitching.We noticed that even a meagre income of forty ,fifty rupees made a huge difference to them.Our project slowed down as we were not able to market cloth bags even at a low price of Rs 5 or 10/- The project was in Sangam vihar ,Pulprehladpur and Shahadra.

We set out thinking as to where do people require polybags ? it was majorly for buying vegetables and then for waste disposal.So the idea to reduce requirement for polybags one needed to manage wet kitchen waste which is 70% of total household waste.Surprisingly we saw a total saving on requirement of garbage bags for lining bins. This led to birth of our movement Harit Kachra Kranti !The project was successfully taken up with residents of Masjid mothDDA Flats phase1 . A small project of composting jointly by block people was successful which led us to install compost bins for neighborhood in the parks. We have installed three bins in the colony and the garbage collector has been educated on collecting kitchen waste seperately. It is an uphill task to educate the educated to segregate waste. On similar lines one bin has been installed in Sangam vihar L1 gali number 18 .Volunteers are giving small candy boxes for keeping kitchen waste  to residents.Children are going house to house educating residents and collecting funds for compost bins. One bin was installed in Gandhi peace foundation today  for composting kitchen waste, the sweeper Nitin was the happiest ! it meant less work for him.

 Success of project would depend on raising awareness on new scientific ways of composting ,giving cheap readily available options for managing waste. The awareness has been received very positively by garbage lifters as it means they make money out of each bit of waste they collect wet or dry, added advantage is cleaner working conditions for them.

We have already got requests for installation of bins in Safdarjung enclave on trial basis. By applying collective wisdom we can overcome challanges we may face in achieving our mission of cleaner ,healthier and happier world.The quest for solutions continues.........

Thanks and regards

Ranju Minhas

Founder 

Sept 30 last date to set up rainwater harvesting system : HT

INCENTIVE Properties on over 500 sqm area need to install unit, will get 10% rebate on water bills

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) extended the deadline given to property owners to install rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems from June 30 to September 30.

DJB officials say they want to make sure that the policy takes off not just on paper but in reality.

“The deadline was tight and almost impossible to meet. We can’t ensure that everyone has a rainwater harvesting pit by force. People have to be mobilised. Penalising them will not help and hence the extension,” says DJB CEO, Keshav Chandra.

For over a decade, policy makers in Delhi have tried to encourage rainwater harvesting. Policies have made the construction of RWH pits mandatory in buildings constructed on an area of more than 100 metre square. But the ground reality hasn’t changed. For around five years now, Delhi has only 500 approved RWH structures.

The new dispensation wants to change this. How successful they are remains to be seen.

For starters, the gover nment is looking at institutions instead of individual households.

“We want everyone to do it but the impact of institutions spread over a bigger area is going to be bigger. We will also move to individuals soon,” Chandra said.

Properties built on an area of over 500 metre square have been mandated to install a RWH system. They will get a rebate of 10% on water bills if this is done.

In case a system is not installed, the water tariff will be increased by 1.5 times.

T he Delhi gover nment looked towards the Chennai model where the practice is mandatory to get a building licence, but is simple enough so that people are not getting permission through fraudulent measures.

In Delhi, this first meant making the process more flexible and less expensive.

According to Jyoti Shar ma of the Forum for Organised Resources Conservation and Enhancement (FORCE), the current policy is better despite its shortcomings. It makes it simpler and cheaper for people to set up RWH structures.

“The idea behind the new policy is that if a lot if people will do it, it will be very beneficial for the water table. The simplicity is to make sure that more people adopt it willingly,” Sharma said.

The new pit, without the borewell, can be constructed at a third of the cost of the previous one. It can also be made cheaper of you want a basic structure.

“For filtrates, we suggest using rocks, sand, gravel and charcoal etc. If that doesn’t work, even gunny bags at the bottom of the pit will do. All you have to ensure is that contaminated water is not entering the pit, and clean the pit regularly,” Chandra said.

This, however, can be tricky. To make sure that only rainwater enters the pit, the supply to the pit will have to be secured and it has to be made sure that any other lines, such as a sewer pipe, is not leaking and contaminating the water in the pit.

Maintaining and cleaning the pit and also the outlet one the roof and the downpipe are clean and unobstructed.

According to the latest groundwater survey of Delhi, south Delhi is the most parched. Water is found only at a depth of 40 metres. Only in six small pockets, three in northwest Delhi, one in north east Delhi and one in west Delhi can water be found at a two-metre depth.

On an average, water is found at a depth of 10-15 metres.

with thanks : Hindustan Times Dated 27.6.2016

Boundaries of 272 wards to change, may impact poll fortunes of 40 Assembly seats : HT

NEW DELHI: The upcoming municipal elections will be held on 272 wards, however, the seats could be redistributed among the three civic bodies going to polls next year.

Delhi State Election Commission officials said the number of municipal wards in the national capital would continue to be 272, even as the geographical boundaries of each ward will witness dramatic changes.

Sources said the delimitation process would lead to a major shift in certain assembly constituencies, which will now have up to seven wards. Currently, each constituency has four wards.

“The total number of wards in the city will remain the same. However, due to migration, the number of wards under each assembly constituency will change. It will now range from three to seven,” said Rakesh Mehta, Delhi State Election commissioner.

Sources in the polling body said the change in wards was due to alteration in ward-wise population. The areas most likely to be affected are the Walled City, east and west Delhi.

“The delimitation process is based on 2011 census. Going by the data, while a lot of people have migrated from Old Delhi, the population in the east and west Delhi has risen exponentially. Therefore, these constituencies will be the most affected,” said a high-ranking official.

He further said each ward would now have 60,000 people with an estimated 40,000 voters.

Municipal elections will be held in Delhi in April 2017, which will be the first real contest among all political parties since the 2015 assembly elections. Currently, all three municipal corporations are governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Sources said of the total 70 assembly constituencies, at least 40 are likely to be affected significantly. Eighteen constituencies are likely to comprise of five to seven wards and in at least 19, wards per constituency will go down to three.

In all, 272 municipal wards fall under the jurisdiction of 68 assembly seats, with four municipal wards in each of the 68 assembly seats. While both South and North Delhi Municipal Corporations have 104 wards each under their jurisdiction, the East Delhi Corporation has 64 wards.

Meanwhile, the geographical boundaries of all municipal wards are also going to change. Officials said wards would now be in sync with assembly constituency through geo-characteristics to avoid overlapping of wards in two or three assembly constituencies.

“The boundaries will be based on well defined geo-characteristics like arterial roads, canals, drains to ensure that colonies and areas are not split mindlessly,” said a top official.

Mehta said that while the process of delimitation was ‘almost complete’, the official documents would be in the public domain for suggestions from mid -uly to August-end. “Once we get the feedback, we will send the document to the Delhi government for notification,” said Mehta.


with thanks : Hindustan Times Dated 27.6.2016

RWAs Vs Mohalla Sabha !

Sirs,

Mohalla Sabhas is replacement of Bhagidari scheme of previous government. It is purely political gimmic as was with bhagidari, The present system is being evolved on the basis of density of voters who are mostly pro aap. Secondly the funds will also be utilized on these voters rather than tax payers. This is another way of giving freebees to its own workers.

The tax payers of Delhi in planned colonies are suffering with several problems like filthy drains, bad roads, stray dogs and stray cows, acute parking space, transport etc etc.

The Mohalla sabhas will end up with political fights among various political parties.

This is high time to wage a planned agitation by grouping ourselves (RWAs in planned colonies, who are in majority and major contributors of taxes etc,) Let us form a group via social media to begin with. Unity has strength ...sangathan (union) has strength.

Pl give some thought to this imminent problem which is looming large on our heads very soon.

 with best wishes

M M Lal Bhasin

Patron, RWA D Blk Ashok Vihar,

President, Delhi Electricity Consumers Society (Regd)

RWAs Vs Mohalla Sabha !

Dear Mr. Vohra ji,

Inspite of unanimous opinion against the introduction of Mohalla Sabha. the local Govt. will still go ahead, as it is the channel through which they could make happy and cosy all the volunteers of AAP and it will be a source of another botheration to the RWAs, It is similar to creation of 21 posts of Parliamentary Secretaries to oblige his own clans! Let's wait and watch!

TK Balu