Inclusion in Dharamsala MC benefited none, locals want to be compensated

Tribune News Service

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, April 18

Alleging that they did not gain much after their area was included in the Dharamsala Municipal Corporation in 2015, residents of Khaniyara say they have not got facilities — such as sewerage, pucca streets and streetlights — befitting an urban area in eight years.

The residents of Ward 15 have also lost the facility of availing benefits under the homestay scheme of the state government. They were earlier enjoying concession of being in a rural area, but now they were being asked to pay the property tax that too sans any facility in return, the residents alleged. Rishav Sharma, a resident of the area, said before 2015 he used to run a homestay in a portion of his house as Khaniyara village was adjoining the tourist town of Dharamsala.

After 2015, he had to close down his homestay business as the Tourism Department officials told him that the scheme was meant for rural areas and since his house was under the urban body now, he cannot run the facility. The residents of area lost a way to earn a livelihood after the inclusion of the village in Dharamsala MC, he lamented.

Satya Gurang, another local, said after inclusion in the MC area they were expecting that benefits of Smart City project would also reach them. “However, the area still has lot of kuccha streets and no sewerage facility, besides many areas were without streetlights,” he added.

The residents rue that the area also does not have public dustbins or door-to-door facility for garbage collection. Due to the lack of the proper collection system, people generally dispose their garbage into rivulets. At several places in the ward, the rivulets are getting clogged with plastic waste.

Naina Sharma, another resident, alleged that after the village was included in the MC, many local women lost an employment opportunity. “Earlier, women from the village would get employment under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, but the scheme ended after the inclusion of Khaniyara in the MC. The government has failed to provide an alternative source of employment to women of the area,” she alleged.

The residents of Khaniyara said unplanned development in many areas of the ward had narrowed down several streets and passages. “As the area falls under the MC, the Town and Country Planning Department’s norms should be implemented so that people do not encroach upon public paths. Many commercial buildings were coming up in the area in violation of bylaws, creating problems for the locals,” they added.

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