Residents expect much more from MC

With the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation polls round the corner— slated for December 18— an analysis of the past performance is very much warranted. So is the focus on the issues that concern the man in the street.  

Bijli, pani aur sadak, (power, water and roads), the basic necessities for the residents, are still not up to the mark. While the residents keep suffering from power and water woes (power supply is under the UT Administration), the condition of roads (jointly controlled by the MC and UT) is far from satisfactory.

As is their wont, both the BJP-SAD combine and the Congress have, of late, intensified the blame game, accusing each other of “all the ills” that plague Chandigarh, just to score brownie points on the eve of the polls. Charges and counter-charges are flowing thick and fast.

Not only has the work on augmentation of water supply started, though at the fag-end of the term of the present House, the MC bagged several national awards under the “open defecation free city” and “Swachh Bharat” flagship programmes, besides getting selected for the Smart City status.

But issues like the city’s lone garbage dumping ground and processing plant and parking woes remain unsolved. The controversies over the garbage plant and parking lots kept raging, leaving the hapless residents to fend for themselves. The summers gave people a tough time due to power outages, and water scarcity touching a new low.

But a majority of the city councillors seemed unmoved as most MC House meetings were marked by utter chaos and unruly scenes with little meaningful business being transacted. The nominated councillors, with voting rights, played the kingmakers in the hung House, where both the BJP-SAD and the Congress often put on their oft-played tunes. 

The BJP-SAD combine and the Congress have been ruling the Municipal Corporation for about two decades since the Union Territory got its civic body. While it began with the BJP and presently also, the BJP is ruling the 35-member House, comprising 26 elected and 9 nominated members, an exception in the Punjab Municipal Act, under which the local civic body is governed, it is the Congress which has given the city 15 out of the 22 Mayors so far. The BJP and SAD Mayors ruled the MC on seven occasions. What the polls would throw up is anybody’s guess.