Kohima Municipal Council

Brief History of Kohima Municipal Council

The Kohima Town Council (KTC) came into existence in 1957, initiated by concern citizens as the time and situation demanded, with Late Dr. Neilhouzhu Kire as its first Vice-Chairman from July 1957 till May 1967.

Shri. Yusuf Ali, IFAS who was the then Deputy Commissioner of Kohima was the first ex-officio Chairman of KTC.

When it humbly became, the KTC consisted of only 8 wards but subsequently today we have 19 wards.

In the first representative body of the KTC there were 8 elected members and 4 Government nominees.

Then on 19th August 1982, a fully fledged Chairperson was elected by the elected members of the wards with Late Joseph Jasokie as the first elected Chairman of KTC.

Then in 2005, the first Municipality was constituted under the provision of the Nagaland Municipal Act, 2001 and subsequently to elections in the month December 2004 in all 19 wards under KMC jurisdiction. Besides inheriting the responsibilities & functions of the erstwhile KTC the present KMC is accorded with more & more responsibilities, that includes managing the affairs mentioned in the 12 schedules as mentioned in the Indian Constitution. This transformation becomes necessary as our town grew in size and in population, the problems and demands increases requiring higher form of Civic Governance to catch up and come at par with other advanced towns and cities.

However, as we are aware, the Kohima Municipality is in a transitional stage yet to be fully fledging Municipality and it depends on each and every citizen to co-operate and contribute towards bringing better changes in our State Capital.

KMC is presently working with an Institutional Development Consultant (IDC) from Ahmedabad, under SIPMIU Project for over all reforms & restructuring of the KMC office, staff & for better management of Waste etc. SIPMIU Project started since October 2008 & with IDC from December 2011.KMC is also preparing to switch over to double entry accounting with the assistance of IDC. The draft copy of KMC Accounting Manual is already put up to the State Government for approval and moreover opening balance sheet of KMC accounts is completed. KMC will also launch its website very soon, where public can get information’s about, Trade license, Hiring of Public Utility Services, Rates & above all Public Grievances Cell, which will be given a top priority.

KMC is Affiliated to Commonwealth Local Government Forum(CLGF)

Kohima Municipal Council is privilege to be affiliated with the CLGF, base at UK with the active initiative & constant support of Mrs Anuya Kuwar, Project Officer-Asia Region CLGF. Under �Good Practise Scheme� & � Good Governance � KMC had opportunities to visit certain places within India & abroad like, Thrissur in Kerela ,Aurungabad in Maharastra, Colombo in Sri Lanka 2009, Bahamas in Caribbean Sea 2009 & Capetown in South Africa in 2011.Through these exposure cum study tours, KMC had acquired & benefitted immense knowledge from advance countries & resource/expert person on modern & scientific ways of Waste management, Administration & monitoring policies.

Presently Kohima City is generating about 60-70 metric tonnes of waste and with limited machineries & manpower, KMC is operating only with 7 garbage Trucks & 84 labours. Out of 119 labours 80 labours are engaged in street sweeping in all major roads of our city & 39 attached to garbage vehicles vehicle.

Kohima Demo-Project: 

The first major Project & Awareness Kick �off was started in 2006 with a Demo-Project on SWM in collaboration with NPCB & sponsored by CPCB with a total amount of 1.35 crore. Under this Demo Project, KMC has purchased 2 Mini-Tipper Trucks, One JCB,2 Tata Mobile for Bio-Medical Waste, Push Carts for Rag Pickers, Pamphlets, Sanitary Equipments & Free distribution of about 18,000 bins of both 5 & 100 litres to colonies, schools, colleges, Govt. Offices & other institute for creating awareness of Non Bio-Degradable (Recyclable waste) (Blue bins) & Bio-Degradable (Green Bins).Under this Demo- Project, KMC has set up a mini-landfill at Viyakhukie above Phek road (16 kms) from Kohima.

Vermin compost plant

Vermin compost plant started on 1st April 2013.(Organic Composting of Vegetable or Green Waste) have already started functioning along with Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Plant & is trying to generate power & cobbar gas for domestic fuel. This Project objective is to create awareness in maintaining better waste management at primary household levels and to experiment other ways & means of Recycling Waste to Wealth.

Bio-Medical Waste

Bio-Medical Waste was launch on 1st April 2011 at NHK Kohima. KMC is already working out to install Incinerator for treatment of medical waste in scientific ways with the help of Medical Department, but at present medical waste are burnt in an improvised brick chimney & through deep burial system. This is important because mixing of Bio Medical & domestic waste can create major health hazards for both man & animals.KMC is collecting Bio-Medical waste from all Hospitals, Clinics & Nursing Homes on payment basis (Rs.700/- per trip) on alternative days within its jurisdiction and instructed all health institutes to disposed their Bio-Medical waste in prescribe plastic bags for safety measures. At present there are 22 Clinics, 6 Nursing Home & 1 Hospital i.e. 29 and frequency of collections is 4 trips per week.

Decentralization:

(Brief note on �Decentralized Sanitation Service �in Kohima.)

The Decentralized Sanitation Service was launched on 2nd August 2011 by Neiphiu Rio, Hon�ble Chief Minister of Nagaland from State Academy Hall, Kohima for 10 wards and the remaining 9 wards on 27th November 2013 by Zhaleo Rio, honble Parliamentary Secretary of Urban Development. This concept of decentralized policy was firstly initiative by Kohima Municipal Council (KMC) after an exposure trip to Gangtok in March 2011,mainly to study about the decentralised policy undertaken by an NGO in Gangtok and the success story in implementing, under SIPMIU capacity building(ADB externally added fund).

After the visit, the KMC took up the matter at war footing basis on sensitizing the concept and its success with the Panchayat, Youth & Women organizations at ward level and apprises them about the importance of their role in managing their own waste at household/primary collection & ward levels through their active involvement & participant. At first the wards & colonies were unenthusiastic to take over the decentralized policy, but after several rounds of meetings and deliberations, it was agreed to implement the policy in 10(Ten) wards on trail basis and accordingly under the supervision of KMC, Ward Sanitation Committees was form in all the respective 10 wards. But since the KMC is unable to buy the vehicles with its limited resources, the matter was taken up with the Hon�ble Chief Minister and apprises him about the success & good practice of �Decentralized Sanitation Service� and its consequences, the Chief Minister agreed to provide 10 (ten) Bolero Pick up vehicles and accordingly the KMC have selected 10 wards in the first phase with terms & conditions that, the constituted Ward Sanitation Committee will operate & regulate the service along with a nominal user charge fixed by KMC in the form of sanitation fee @ Rs.30/- per household per month to all the residence of their respective wards/colonies and with the amount collected, the committee will manage all expenditures related to operation/maintenance of the decentralized vehicle & manpower involved. Since it was on trial basis, KMC have not realised/charged any percentage/amount collected from these decentralized wards for the first one year.

The sanitation fee was enhanced in April 2014 to Rs.50. Decentralized wards have also being declared as community dust-bin free zones, where all existing community bins have been removed/dismantled. The first ward to declared dust-bin free zone on experimental basis was Naga Bazaar ward in 2005 and found to be practical & successful, one main factor was the waste has reduce in volume after community bins were removed.

In the same manner, by decentralizing all 19 wards in Kohima city, the policy of Re-cycle, Re-duce & Re-used (3Rs) is seen in reality.

Kohima is also one of the first Municipalities in our country to decentralize about 60% of its waste collection through people�s participation.

Awareness Month : KMC has declared the month of May every year as �Solid Waste Management Awareness Month, since 2010 and accordingly we has organised Mass Social works, Awareness Seminars in colonies wise and the general public�s etc, Basing on this, in 2013 KMC have distributed pamphlets on �Menace & Dangers of Plastic bags�, distributed to general Publics Churches, Colleges, Schools and to the Traders etc. Since Plastics have become a part of our daily life, moreover banning of plastic bags was not successful, KMC is trying an alternative policy to at least Reduce-Reused & Recycle i.e. Through a circular /press release, we have notified that wef 1st June 2013, Plastic carry bags with less than 40 microns will be totally banned for all domestic uses in Kohima City. Accordingly KMC staff has already started checking & seizing of all unauthorised plastics bags less than 40 microns. KMC appeals to all citizens to used cloth or other bio-degradable bags and henceforth all plastics bags of 40 microns & above will be charged from the bill/on payment for shopping etc. Under Urban Development (UD) capacity building, representative from KMC along with Parliamentary Secretary UDD & Officials MAC & UDD visited Municipalities in Thailand in May 2014.

Award for Best Inter-ward Cleanliness Competition organized by KMC every year : 

This award was constituted in 2011 with a vision to encourage the wards & the general public�s for creating awareness & better management of waste at the household/Wards/Colonies levels and it was found to be very encouraging & successful. Through this drive, many colonies have regulated rules & guidelines in disposing & management of their respective colonies and some places have been beautified by planting flowers etc. Each year this award is conducted with a running trophies /certificates and cash awards to the best 3 wards i.e. Rs.50,000/- ,Rs.30,000/- & Rs.15,000/- respectively.

Organic Culture introduce on 1st May 2013 at KMC Dumping Site

Organic Culture introduce on 1st May 2013 at KMC Dumping Site at Dzucha Pekro, Phek road with a Firm-Jalavahini Management Services (JMS) Biotech Mysore. This is to reduce the menace of flies & odour/smell and for fast disintegration of the degradable waste, it also killed all sort of insects/maggot and stop breading , once this organic culture is applied.

Scientific Land Fill at Lirie:

Under the externally added fund from Asian Development Bank (ADB) a mega project is under way at Lirie for Waste Management. This is under the supervision of State Investment Program Management & Implementation Unit (SIPMIU) with a project cost of about 40 crore. Here the waste will be scientifically monitored by Segregating Waste, Sewerage Treatment, Air Monitoring and other health hazard etc will be done. The Land fill life is been earmarked for 25 years as per the DPR, but if we can all Reduce-Reuse- Recycle & segregate our waste from household levels the landfill life can be prolonged, but if fail on the part of its citizens in following the basic component of waste management, the huge investment made will go vain. The Project is expected to be commission by the end part of 2015.Under this Project, machineries like compactors, trucks etc for transportation of waste will be purchase along with safety sanitary gears etc.

New Projects & Vision of KMC:

1. The KMC is also trying to bring out one Incinerator Unit for the treatment of common Bio-Medical Waste of Kohima and One Crematorium for the Hindu Community in particular through NPCB and to be funded by CPCB. For which KMC & NPCB officials have initiated and visited CPCB officials at New Delhi for preparation of DPRs.
2. The KMC along with SIPMIU (IDC) has been working for intensive sensitization for Waste segregation, Primary collection & Waste management at household level since June 2014. First round of sensitization is almost over. Under KMC ,SWM awareness month (i.e.May) KMC is organizing a �Mass Flexi-Banner Campaign� in public places with the help of SIPMIU, where some permanent awareness boards on SWM, Water Conservation, Power & General environment issues will be displayed.
3. KMC is targeting & trying its best to gear up to tackle the basic waste menace of the Kohima City by 2020.
4. KMC & SIPMIU is also doing an exercise for House mapping and other data collections for water, electricity, number of household, educational institute & health facilities in respective wards under KMC jurisdiction for future Urban Planning and also for providing better Urban Utility Services by both State Govt. & ULBs.
5. KMC & SIPMIU have taken up a pilot project in ward 13 & 14 for SWM awareness & segregation of waste since July 2015 and distributed about two sets of 4,400 household bins & 2,200 for commercial (Blue & Green).
6. Under SIPMIU Project, KMC is setting up a Recycled Unit/Plant at Lirie adjacent to the land fill to encourage & provide modern facilities, especially to Rag pickers & other individuals/parties engaged in the business.
7. KMC is also getting a Septage Management Treatment Plant under SIPMIU Project to tackle the menace of septic tank scientifically at Dzuruzou, about 14 Kms from Kohima.
8. KMC have introduced a Garbage collection at New Secretariat Area wef July 2015 under its �Clean Kohima� campaign mainly for the Government departments.

Public Utility Services: 

The KMC under its Public Utility Services provides services like Water Tanker, Cesspool & Jnnurm Bus Services under Public transport. KMC also assist Administration/Police/NGOs/Civil Bodies/Clubs etc in socials activities/cleanliness drives/minor road/drainage repairing etc. With limited resources & revenue, KMC is failing on its part to provide basic Utility Services to its citizen.

Revenue:

KMC generates revenue for its maintenance from a very few sources like, Toll Tax, Trade License Fee, Hoarding, Parking Fee, Import/Export Coupons etc with an approximate amount of Rs. 4.5 crores per annum and some of the main expenditures heads are Salary component, which amount to about Rs.3 crores along with repair/replacement & POL amounting to Rs. 65-70 lakhs, Stationeries about 20 lakhs annually, due to the aforesaid reasons, KMC is unable to do any developmental works from its own resources for its citizens. KMC appeal to all its citizens to cooperate and help KMC for better management of Waste and to be an ambassador in propagating waste free city.