OFFICIAL'S WORD: P. Manivannan, Commissioner, Hubli-Dharwd Municipal Corporation, addressing a press conference in Hubli on Wednesday.

HUBLI: The second phase of the drive against illegal buildings and commercial buildings without building permission and completion certificate will start within a week, according to P. Manivannan, Commissioner of Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC).

He told presspersons that during the second phase of the drive, remaining buildings in the list of 407 commercial buildings of more than 2,000 square feet would be tackled first.

During the first phase of the "completion certificate drive", the corporation had sealed 24 buildings.

Four of them were reopened after the presentation of the original certificates, the copies of which were not available with HDMC.

The remaining buildings were reopened after the building owners applied for the certificate, and authorities demolished the structures built violating the building by-laws. The commissioner said that the corporation had completed the formation of 654 citizens' committees in Hubli and Dharwad, and the members were undergoing an orientation programme.

He said that the Corporation staff had prepared a draft of the citizens charter with regard to the various services provided by the corporation.

The draft would be made available to the members of the committees and the media for suggestions.

After incorporating the suggestions, the charter would be finalised, he said.

Mr. Manivannan said that he was not happy with the quality of the services being made available in the corporation although it had succeeded in getting the ISO 9001 certification.

A lot more needed to be done to provide better amenities and services to the public, he said.

He said that the drive against hotels that were not taking steps to maintain hygiene had resumed.

The officials of the Health Department had inspected five hotels and of them two had been prohibited from selling food product, he added.

Toilets

Mr. Manivannan said that the twin cities needed as many as 100 public toilets. Twelve public toilets were being constructed on build, operate and transfer basis.

The Commissioner said that getting the land for constructing public toilets had become a problem and announced that if anybody comes forward to give their land situated in a suitable location, the public toilet would be constructed there within a month. The Commissioner said he had passed an order for the demolition of the building that had come up on the encroached land adjacent to the government school at Veerapur Oni in Hubli.

Posters

Revenue Officer R.N. Shanbhag said that the corporation had banned the display of posters in places other than those identified for them from April 1.

The corporation would start filing police cases against the offenders, he said.

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