Fed up of poor civic amenities, Jalandhar residents write to Punjab CM

SMART CITY? Say it has been nearly six years since Jalandhar was included in the list of Smart City project, but ground reality is that people are crying over traffic woes, faulty streetlights and poor waste management

Residents have not only apprised the CM of the problems, but also suggested some ways through which all these civic issues could be resolved. Tribune file

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 7

A city-based social organisation, which has been working for the welfare of Jalandhar city since past many years, in a letter addressed to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Chief Secretary A Venu Prasad have complained about poor civic amenities in Jalandhar and suggested ways on how to make it a smart city in real.

The letter has been drafted after consulting residents of different localities, residential clubs, welfare societies and among other social organisations, who have been working to make Jalandhar a clean and green city.

Talking to Jalandhar Tribune, SP Virdi, general secretary of Royal Club, said there were solutions to all civic issues but only if authorities concerned implement it effectively.

“The MC has put banners of Smart City across Jalandhar, but the situation on ground is completely opposite. There are many areas which still receive contaminated water supply, there are heaps of garbage lying everywhere due to civic body’s failure to streamline solid waste management, cleanliness of Kala Sanghian Drain and Bist-Doab Canal is still a distant dream of residents, many roads are lying broken and there are no streetlights in many residential colonies and so on,” he added.

Meanwhile, in the letter addressed to the CM and the CS, the club highlighted that under the Smart City project, the MC has promised well-paved roads, traffic management, LED lights, integrated command and control centre, spruced up walkways, roadside benches, better landscaping of green belts, escalator, ramps at railway station, waste management, etc, in the city, but none of these facilities are available to them yet.

He said he has not only apprised the CM of the problems, but the club members, after consulting residents, industrialists and other organisations, have suggested some ways through which all these civic issues could be resolved.

Divulging details about the suggestions proposed, Virdi said shifting of new grain market near Workshop Chowk along with FCI and Markfed godowns to some outer area, proper managements at old sabzi mandi at Maqsudan, shifting of cremation grounds at Kishanpura and Harnamdasspura, installation of CCTV cameras, construction foot overbridge at the main gate of Civil Hospital, dividers at Ram Nagar railway crossing and at Gazigulla crossing, checking of unfit vehicles, deployment of more police personnel on road to check traffic and violations and segregation of waste and proper mechanism for its disposal, etc.

He said mere tall promises and furore at MC meetings won’t solve these long-pending issues and a well chalked-out strategy was required to make Jalandhar a Smart City.

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