UT for Mani Majra as Sec 13

Ramkrishan Upadhyay 

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 2

The UT Administration does not consider “number 13” as ‘inauspicious’ anymore as it has proposed to rename Mani Majra as Sector 13. The Administration has sought objections and the suggestions from public. These can be given at the office of the Chief Architect in Sector 9 by December 16.

Earlier, the UT Administration planned to rename Mani Majra as Sector M, which was opposed by the RWA, Modern Housing Complex, Mani Majra The association demanded that Mani Majra be renamed either as Sector 13 or Sector 26 (East). Acceding to their demand, the Administration has come up with the proposal.

As per the UT proposal, the Sarangpur institutional area will be called Sector 12 (West), Dhanas and Milk Colony area Sector 14 (West), Maloya and Dadu Majra Sector 39 (West), pocket number 8 below Vikas Marg Sector 56 (West) and the Industrial Area, Phase 1, 2 and 3 as the Business and Industrial Park, Phase 1, 2 and 3, respectively.

Industrialists Chander Verma and MPS Chawla welcomed the proposal to rename the Industrial Area as it was their long-pending demand. 

Sources said the final notification would be issued after examining the suggestions of the residents. When Swiss architect Le Corbusier had designed Chandigarh as India’s first planned city more than 50 years ago and divided it into 60 sectors, he had refused to have ‘Sector 13’. It is believed that this was largely because of a superstition that Europeans had around the number. The city has lived with this omission for half a century.