Plagued with woes, Palwal gets 12th DC in 11 years

Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service
Palwal, June 18

The district’s 12th Deputy Commissioner, Yashpal Yadav, has a tough task at hand. Palwal, which became a district in 2008, is plagued with several issues related to basic infrastructure and civic amenities.

“Development eludes the district having a population of over 11 lakh,” said Mohan Singh, a local.

“Despite being located at a place, where three national highways or expressways meet, Palwal has failed to get any major industrial unit or institution, which could generate jobs,” he claimed.

The so-called work on roads has hit farmers hard, with most of them ending up getting their land acquired by the government or builders.

“The major problems are traffic congestion, unhygienic surroundings, garbage strewn all around, inadequate water and power supply, lack of higher education and unemployment,” he said.

Alleging that an indifferent treatment was meted out to Palwal as far as the allocation of funds was concerned, MLA Karan Dalal said the discrimination and frequent transfers had resulted in the area’s poor growth.

“While the work on the highway is going on at a snail’s pace, heaps of garbage have choked the city drains,” he said.

Uday Bhan, MLA from Hodal, said Palwal had not seen any development in the past 11 years due to petty politics.

Admitting that there were problems which needed to be addressed, Yadav, who took over on June 13, said cleanliness, removing encroachments, cleaning of drains and disposal of garbage were on the priority list.

Earlier, CR Rana (two tenures), MK Mahajan, Ramesh Verma, Balraj Singh, Amit Agarwal, Vijay Dahiya, KM Pandurang, Ashok Meena Ashok Sharam and Mani Ram Sharma were the DCs.