MC study tours go in vain again as reports gather dust

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 10

Once more, study tours are likely to go in vain as councillors have no time to discuss the reports submitted by three groups of councillors, who visited three cities in September.

While the term of the present Mayor, Davesh Moudgil, is ending soon, the MC has failed to take any decision on the reports prepared by the councillors. Despite the MC facing a fund crisis, councillors in three groups had visited Indore, Vijaywada and Mysuru.

The councillors studied the waste segregation system in these cities and found these ahead of Chandigarh.

Devinder Singh Babla, Congress councillor, who was part of the group that visited Mysuru, said they worked hard on the study tour report, but the MC had no time to discuss it. He said it was earlier decided to discuss the report in an MC meeting, but later it was decided to hold a special meeting of the House for the purpose. He said a date was fixed for the meeting, but later it was deferred without assigning any reason. Babla said the term of the present Mayor was ending this month and there was little chance of the reports being approved before his term ended.

Another councillor, who was part of the tour to Vijayawada, said the technology adopted by the Vijayawada MC for solving the dumping ground problem was excellent and they had recommended that it should be adopted in Chandigarh. Another councillor, who was part of the team that visited Indore, said Indore had one of the best systems for waste management and they had recommended that it should be adopted by the city, but the MC was not serious about the issue.

The study tours of the MC have received flak in the past too for not implementing the reports. This year also, councillors went on tours despite the MC facing one of its worst financial crises.

Sources said the MC had spent over Rs 60 lakh on study tours in the past four years, but the reports were never implemented

RK Garg, president of the Second Innings Association, said the tours were a wastage of public money and should be stopped in the future.

Among the cities visited by councillors in the past are Kolkata, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune.