Newly elected councillors should hit the ground running

As the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections are over, the elected councillors need to get down to work to meet the hopes and aspirations of the people. Among the priorities of the newly-elected councillors should be restoring the dignity of the august House by conducting themselves well on its floor. They must list out priorities of the pending public-centric proposals and projects gathering dust in the office files and take each one to its conclusive end.

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Most staff do not work

The main problem ailing the MC is that though there are plenty of staff, most of them do not work. Of the army of sweepers employed, many are working only at the residence of councillors and officers. Some work for money privately, neglecting the work assigned. The costly machines bought for cleaning roads are only seen when VIPs visit the city. Garbage collection is erratic and mobile toilets are dirty.

Bubby Soin

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Credible institutions required

"Transformative governance", both at the front and back ends of the service delivery system, is critically important to push Chandigarh's social and economic development. Effective and credible institutions and a transparent ecosystem, especially in areas of public procurement, infrastructure and services, are essential to ensure long-term sustainable growth. The MC cannot keep pace with the rapid increase in the offloading of responsibilities and unfunded mandates. Developing an open architecture is the need of the hour.

Akash Kumar

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Good governance needed

The MC needs to be more powerful as it is a body comprising those who are elected representatives of the people and work for them. There exists an urgent need to find appropriate solutions to some unanswered questions. Good governance is the need of the hour. The citizens, who have occupied the centre stage, demand a more responsive, transparent and accountable set-up, premised on probity and integrity.

Nikhil Chopra

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Civic amenities should be ensured

The newly-elected councillors should keep their promises made before the elections. Basic amenities like water, electricity and health must be improved.  Proper lighting system and maintenance of parks should be looked into. More CCTV cameras should be installed at roundabouts and public places to avoid wrong-doings.  Water and electricity facilities before summers and drainage system before the monsoon should be ensured beforehand.  A grievance cell should be formed for the citizens and problems resolved.

Rashi Srivastava

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Southern parts of city need attention

Chandigarh has been conceived as a planned city.  However, a disturbing feature of planning is the widening of the north-south divide.  With a population of about 12 lakh and heavy influx of migrants every day,  the demographic composition  of the city is undergoing a rapid change and this affects the southern part of the city in respect of various public utilities like deterioration of roads and naked electricity wires with erratic streetlights.

SK Khosla, Chandigarh

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Planning needed to execute policy

Now that the new dispensation will start functioning with a huge majority, the expectations of the citizens have arisen manifold. Policy alone will not work without planning. Presently, work is allotted to contractors and there is no supervision by the MC, resulting in shoddy work in some cases. The priorities are cleanliness, regular drinking water, rapid transport system, waste management system, affordable health facilities, and saving of heritage and topography of City Beautiful.

Bharat Bhushan Sharma

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Councillors need to interact more with people

Councillors are visible only during the elections and they go into hibernation after the event. They need to interact more frequently with the residents. Maintain the dignity of the House, avoid chaos and manhandling of councillors in the MC meetings.  Provide water supply thrice a week, maintain green belts which are in a pitiable state, reduce traffic jams during the office hours, ensure clean gullies and maintain V5, V6 roads which are in a deplorable condition.

Wg Cdr JS Bhalla (retd)

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Free city of encroachments

It has been a long practice for the political parties to make tall promises during the elections and residents relying on them. But the political parties failed to deliver goods. Now, once again, the residents are relying on the new MC for the fulfillment of hopes of an encroachment-free city along with all-round development and availability of the needed infrastructure at all places of utilities.

HBS Batra, Mohali

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Councillors should tackle problems to instill confidence

The burgeoning population, influx of migrants from neighbouring states, mushrooming slums, ever increasing crime, especially against women and the elderly, frequent cases of snatchings and car-jackings, kidnappings, water scarcity during the peak summers, traffic snarls and spurt in the number of beggars are some of the problems to be addressed on a priority basis by the team of new councillors so as to instill confidence among the citizens for which they would require to establish proper co-ordination with the administration to yield fruitful results, instead of reducing the House to a mere battlefield.

RC Verma, Chandigarh

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Fresh hopes from the MC

The residents have hopes of cleanliness around their houses, no encroachments, well-maintained parks, proper streetlights, suitable maintenance of parking lots in different markets at reasonable rates and above all, availability of doctors and needed medicines in hospitals and dispensaries. The MC has always been claiming that Chandigarh would be encroachment-free but the MC never succeeded, nor did it succeed in maintaining properly the parking lots in the markets. Residents have once again sincere hopes from the new MC.

Balbir Singh Batra, Mohali

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Display status of complaints, works online

The elected councillors should start a new facility through social media options like WhatsApp or by post and start a website that shows the complaints received and the status of work and the new updates on that. The councillors should survey their wards regularly.

Pradyumn Gupta, Chandigarh

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Purposeful co-ordination required

The immediate priority for the newly-elected councillors is to focus on interaction with residents of their areas and purposeful co-ordination to gain their trust. Residents want basic civic amenities to be improved. These include green belts, broken roads, parking lots and poor lifting of garbage. Let leaders lend an ear to the grievances of the public and ensure time-bound action. The new MC should avoid an internal fight.

Vidya Sagar Garg, Panchkula

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Maintain order in House

Many challenging tasks are ahead for the new MC House such as parking, sanitation, garbage plant at Dadumajra, water supply, health, education, roads, electricity, law and order, settlement of vendors, checking encroachments, pending inquiries/scams to address and redress residents’ complaints, implement integrated transport system in the tricity which includes flyovers, underpasses and Metro rail project, found feasible to ease traffic congestion. The decorum of the House should be maintained at all costs.

AS Ahuja, Chandigarh

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Involve councillors & residents’ welfare associations

There are a number of challenges for the new MC House. The team of the newly-elected councillors should translate the projects so envisaged in the manifesto sincerely and honestly to the satisfaction of the citizens of the city. To provide quality civic amenities in the city with the active involvement of councillors and Residents’ Welfare Associations of the particular area should be a priority of the corporation.

Bhupinder S Sealopal, Mohali

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Time to list priorities

Hats off to the BJP that has got an absolute majority by winning 20 seats out of 26 in the MC elections. It is time to list priorities, like better sanitation and garbage management, 24x7 water supply, better roads, footpaths and introduction of solar energy for streetlights. The MC should introduce a round the clock helpline where the people can register their grievances for quick action.

Harish Kapur, Chandigarh

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Councillors should meet voters

Kudos to the BJP for scoring an unprecedented victory in the MC elections. The councillors should now have a time-bound schedule for carrying out development works in the city --- garbage management, maintenance of public toilets, auction of parking lots, shifting of strays to the dog ponds and solar system for streetlights. The councillors should meet their voters at least once in three months who may apprise them of their grievances.

Nikita Kapur, Chandigarh

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Start left out schemes

With the gigantic support of citizens, leading candidates of the BJP have been voted to power with an unprecedented majority in the civic body elections. Now, the newly formed House will have no excuse to blame the opponents for interruptions. With a supportive government at the Centre, left out development schemes and projects can easily be re-started without constraints. Let us all hope for an optimum outcome during the tenure without any split indoors.

Surinder Paul Wadhwa, Mohali

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Councillors must give report to residents

Nowadays, the main problem of each area is cleanliness, maintaining streetlights and sewerage. But it is the duty of each elected person to fix a time and place where he can meet the residents and know their difficulties and inform the officials concerned to redress them. Parking is also a major problem and the MC should consider it seriously. The newly-elected councillors must also give their report quarterly to the area residents.

Tarlok Singh, Mani Majra

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Decorum in House needed

The people of Chandigarh are waiting for the fruitful functioning of the newly-elected MC team to fulfill their hopes. First of all, the behaviour of the MC House must be in expected order and not like at fish markets. The people expect the new MC team to take the city to new heights in the field of environment and general cleanliness. The traffic chaos on the roads should be checked.

Wg Cdr Jasbir Singh Minhas (retd), Mohali

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MC should tackle civic issues

The newly-elected Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh must tackle the issue of daily house-to-house collection and disposal of garbage, menace of stray cattle and stray dogs, ensure round-the-clock water supply even to the residents living on top floor, timely repair of damaged roads for smooth plying of traffic, presence of traffic policemen in adequate numbers on the busy roads and punishing those who deface sector indicator stones and maps with advertisements.

RK Kapoor, Chandigarh

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Councillors must work to improve the lives of people

Political  affiliations  apart,  the  elected  representatives  must  work  for improving  the  lives  of  the  people  who  have  elected  them.   They must work  together  in  unison, on   common   issues  like  all-round cleanliness, sewerage  system, adequate  supply  of  drinking  water, greenery, proper streetlights and  well-maintained  roads. Unfortunately, the candidates of all political parties and Independents contest elections, make  tall promises but seldom deliver.

SC Luthra, Mani Majra