Problems galore in ‘mini capital’ Panchkula

The Panchkula Assembly segment, which is part of the Ambala Lok Sabha seat, had been a stronghold of the Congress till BJP’s Gian Chand Gupta had wrested the seat in the 2014 Vidhan Sabha elections. He had polled 69,916 votes, defeating INLD’s Kulbhushan Goyal.

Gupta, a former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), had lost to Devender Kumar Bansal of the Congress in 2009, when the grand old party had formed the state government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

If the past two Assembly elections are any indicator, voters of the Panchkula segment goes with the tide. It elects a legislator from the party that goes on to form the government. Will it be the case this elections as well? Only time will tell.

Panchkula is the smallest district in Haryana, but it is said to be the “mini-capital” of the state as several administrative offices are located in the city. 

Gupta is confident of being fielded again on the back of development works done in the past five years. On his chances of getting the ticket again, he says: “I will respect the party’s decision as a true soldier.” 

He claims the BJP government started development works worth Rs 2,000 crore in the constituency. “Ever since the formation of Haryana, these works had been pending,” he claimed.

One of the projects that he boasts of is the four-laning of the Panchkula-Yamunanagar highway.

But ask Congress leader Ranjeeta Mehta, who is one of the contenders for the party ticket, and she terms Gupta’s term as a “failure”. “The district is yet to see a world-class educational institution as promised by him five years ago,” she says. 

“The claims of 24-hour electricity supply remains on paper, the Congress leader says, accusing Gupta of corruption.

Talk to people and they list out their grievances. Potholed roads, poor sewerage system in areas such as Sector 25, no robust public transport in the evening, lack of job opportunities, non-shifting of a dumping ground from a residential colony in Sector 23, stray dog menace, non-maintenance of streetlights and encroachments are some of their grievances.

City resident Lalit said, “The MLA’s performance has been unsatisfactory. Encroachments and poor sewerage system ail the segment.”

The business community, too, is unhappy with Gupta. Bajrang Dass Garg, president of the Akhil Bharatiya Vypar Mandal and Congress worker, says the number of industrial units in the city today is 50 per cent of what it was in 2014. “The BJP government failed to give a boost to the industry. There are more furniture and marble shops than factories in the industrial area,” he adds.

Will the BJP be able to win over voters again? We will get to know soon. 

Legislatorspeak 

The government spent Rs 2,000 crore on the development of the Panchkula segment in five years. Before I became a legislator in 2014, several projects, including the four-laning of the Panchkula-Yamunagar highway, were pending for years. I got the works completed.—  Gian Chand Gupta, BJP

Oppositionspeak  

}The development narrative that the BJP boasts of is nothing but a hoax. The segment lacks basic amenities. The dumping ground in Sector 23 has not been shifted from a residential colony, while encroachments in several parts of the segment have not been removed. —   Ranjeeta Mehta, Congress leader