Major Developments in Hyderabad – July 2012

The month of July for Hyderabadis was been a crucial month, with state government and High Court issuing several decisive orders in various regards, especially related to EAMCET fees and seats. The major developments include, commencement of EAMCET medical counseling, guidelines for medical management quota seats, AICTE barring 40 engineering colleges, introduction of railway reservation system at post offices, and many others.

General:

• According to India City Competitiveness Report-2012, given by Institute for Competitiveness (IFC), Hyderabad is the 4th most competitive city in terms of use by businesses and governments.

• EC has directed the e-seva centres in Hyderabad city to take up corrections and transpositions in electoral rolls and for issue of Voter ID cards. Therefore, the citizens of the city can now get their EPIC issued and corrected at e-seva centres in 24 constituency assemblies of GHMC. For more information click here https://hyderabad-india-online.com/2012/07/correcting-voter-id-cards/

• The condition of city roads in the main areas further deteriorated due to the heavy rainfall. The repairing works are moving at the snails pace. This is causing great difficulty to the pedestrians as well as motorists to commute on the city roads, causing traffic congestion and delays.

• According to a study conducted by ICLEI, Hyderabad’s vehicular pollution is one of the highest contributors to Green House Gas emissions in the city. The study also involved 2 days exclusive field study at two junctions – Greenland junction and Rajiv Gandhi Chowk intersections, as they were found to be the most important, problematic and busiest areas in the inner ring road corridor and hence, need immediate attention.

• According to an announcement by APHMH&IDC, the Jeevanadhara outlets set up at OGH and Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad city, will now sell 341 important drugs at a discount ranging from 30% to 84% on the MRP.

• FSSAI has come up with an idea to reward the informants, who have complained about the misleading claims made by the food manufacturers. The reward price will be Rs.500.

• The Income Tax department has extended the last date for filing tax returns to August 31st. IT department has also set up 12 counters at Ayakar Bhavan at Basheerbagh to ease the filing of IT returns.

• Indian Railways are to issue tatkal tickets from 10 am (instead of 8 am) on the previous day of journey from train originating station with effect from July 10. It is also introducing coin vending machines at every railway station.

• The passenger reservation system has been extended by the Indian railways to post offices in cities. These post offices include, Central Secretariat, Jubilee Head post Office, Amberpet, Uppal, Hayatnagar, National Police Academy, Musheerabad and Kakatiyanagar sub-post office.

• APCPDCL has initiated the Smart Grid Project, which involves the installation of smart meters for the consumers to improve reliability, quality, accurate billing and efficiency of the existing power supply network. These meters have been installed on a pilot basis for 40 consumers under the Hindi Mahavidyalaya DTR, and in few areas like Malkajgiri, Moinabad, Banjara Hills, etc.

• According to official statement given by Cyber Crime, CID, there were 100 cyber crime cases registered in the city in the last six months, which is a 30% increase over the last year’s number.

• In the month of June & July, HMWS&SB has constructed 450 rain water harvesting structures in all its 16 divisions. The board has also announced that it will refund the deposits collected from customers if they construct a RWH (water board collects Rs.2,500 from each customer who is having above 200 sq yards).

• HMR authorities have finalized the metro rail design produced by L&T Metro rail Hyderabad, Ltd. The design includes features such as foolproof security features, automatic fare collection system, footpaths, separate bus-ways, auto-ways and car & two-wheeler parking areas. Special pedestrian facilities, including sky-walks below the viaduct and street furniture at the ground level. There will be 66 stations at 63 locations.

• The Cyberabad police department has issued TOFFEE stickers to the Wipro employees, thus, exempting them from routine document checks conducted by traffic police.

• For the upcoming COP-11 in the city, GHMC is spending 9 crore to erect sign broads on 17 important roads, which are divided into three packages. GHMC has also taken up beautifying works of flyovers, footpaths, modernization of traffic signals, developing landscapes in central medians and traffic islands, etc.

• A new GO 452 was issued by the state government, allowing orphans and the destitute living in the state recognized orphanages and old age homes to avail free treatment under Aarogyasri health insurance scheme.

• GHMC has said that, the shopkeepers who are found dumping wastes in front of their shops and main roads will attract a hefty penalty, police cases and cancellation of their licenses.

• AP assembly has launched its own new website, www.aplegislature.org. The website will also contain a e-petition portal, that will help common man submit grievances, petitions/representations in their constituencies online.

• As per the new pension norms released by state government, only those with above 40 per cent disability will be entitled to get disability pensions along with other government schemes and benefits.

Educational:

• AICTE has barred 40 engineering colleges from participating in counseling and taking admissions, citing reason that they failed to meet the minimum criteria proposed by the council. Of the 120 colleges in the state inspected by the AICTE officials, 40 were barred, 60 were given showcause notices, 20 were given conditional permission to admit students, 10 were asked to cut down their intake and the others were asked not to increase their intake.

• AP High Court frames new guidelines for admissions in to management quota seats in medical colleges. As per the guidelines, the admissions should be given as per the merit (EAMCET rank and Intermediate marks) and should produce the list of candidates before HC, for finalizing.

• Counseling for filling 2,050 medical seats in 14 government medical colleges in the state and 3,050 seats in 22 private medical colleges has started. Counselling for general category in both government and private colleges is already completed and the students are supposed to report by July 31.

• The NRI quota in state engineering colleges has been slashed to 5% from 15%.

• State government has initiated major reforms in APPSC to conduct recruitments. They include, a single examination for Group I and Group I-B; the number of attempts by the candidates to take the written examination conducted by APPSC will be on the lines of UPPSC; the creation of a new service called Group I-B; interviews for some gazetted and non-gazetted posts; and setting up of a new computer cell to improve the recruitment process. For more information, click here https://hyderabad-india-online.com/2012/07/major-reforms-appsc

• As per the statistics by Council of Boards of School Education, students from the state have to get at least 87.20 percent in Intermediate exams to be eligible for admissions into IITs, through IITs common entrance test slated next year.

• A new cloud computing research lab has been set up at Osmania University College of Engineering.

• The state government has issued order making it mandatory to include physical education for Class I to X from this academic year 2012-13.

Real Estate:

• 36 land mutation cases have been unearthed by the Hyderabad District Administration. Of these, 22 cases were from Shaikpet, Tirumulgherry, Khairthabad, Bandlaguda and Himayathnagar mandals and the involved land was worth Rs. 2030 crore.

• According to the report released by state’s Consumer Price Index, AP has registered 125.2 index points for June this year for housing, thus, standing second in the rent hike in country. The inflation rate in the state was 6.16% in the last six months.

• The Land regularization Scheme (LRS), which ended on June 30 has been extended by 3 months till September 30. HMDA has also launched an awareness program to encourage the illegal plot owners to regularize their plots under the scheme.

Sports:

• Gagan Narang, a Hyderabadi, won a Bronze medal in the men’s 10m air rifle event in London Olympics – 2012.

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