Chandigarh MC House meet: Congress stages walkout over ‘smart’ parking

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 25

The Municipal Corporation House today approved an amendment to the water supply bylaws, the holding of Rose Festival and the automation of its C&D waste recycling plant among other agenda items.

Rs87L for Rose Fest

• The MC House approved about Rs87-lakh expenditure for the Rose Festival next year. The Rose Fest proposal was tabled early in view of various tenders to be floated for various events.
• Councillor Arun Sood said the winners of different competitions during the festival held this year had not been given their cash awards. He told the House that some of them would not take part next year. The horticulture wing told the House that the matter was pending with the Accounts Department.

DC rate salary for petrol pump staff

• Around 72 staff members deputed at two MC-run petrol pumps will now get salaries on the DC rates. After it came to the notice of Commissioner Anindita Mitra that the staff at the two pumps were paid low salary, she got the agenda item tabled in the House and it was approved.
• Meanwhile, Sood took up the matter of contractors deducting about Rs3,000 per month from the salary of some of the outsourced employees.

Congress councillors staged a walkout over the issue of smart parking lots. Councillor Satish Kainth said they had asked for details about the parking lot contract, but they were not given a satisfactory reply. He said the MC was fleecing people in the name of smart parking. The councillors reached the well of the House to raise slogans before leaving the House.

As per the amendment to the Chandigarh water supply bylaws to incorporate the guidelines of the Ministry of Jal Shakti on regulation and control of groundwater extraction, applicants will have to comply with new provisions to obtain an NOC from the MC for installing tubewells.

Users will have to install digital water-flow meters, have rooftop rainwater harvesting and recharging system in the project area to obtain the NOC. They will be liable to pay for groundwater abstraction and restoration charges based on the quantum of groundwater use.

Nod to automation of C&D waste recycling plant

The capacity of the MC’s construction and demolition (C&D) waste recycling plant will increase manifold as the General House today cleared automation of the plant. Under the new policy, whatever private C&D waste is generated in the city, it will go to the plant. More work could be done after the automation of the plant with the existing workforce only. The new automatic system is expected to be set up by the year-end.

Waste processing plant

Two months ago, the House had awarded the job of preparing a detailed project report (DPR) and a request for proposal (RFP) to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, to upgrade and maintain the waste processing plant. However, the corporation has not received the reports to date. The reason for the delay was the letter regarding the reports was sent to the IIT very late i.e. September 15.

The Mayor then slammed the officials concerned and sought to know why the project was being delayed deliberately. He directed them to speed up the job.

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