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While presenting the budget in the house, Mayor Pardeep Chhabra said major grants have been allocated for improvement of roads, electricity, water supply, sanitation, parks and green belts in the city.
Initiating the discussion on the budget, Congress councillors Manjit Singh Chouhan and Davinder Singh Babla praised the Mayor for presenting a fair budget where equal attention has been paid to all round development of the city.
BSP Councillor Jatinder Bhatia said though the budget income from road cutting work has been shown as Rs 1 crore, private companies cut roads for carrying out certain services. The income shown in the budget should fully elaborate from where the income was generated.
"Motor Market in Sector 48 is with the administration and likewise sectors 49, 50 and 51 too are with the administration. While the administration has issued order for its transfer to the Municipal Corporation, there is no provision for the new sectors in the budget," he said. He said the new areas too need proper infrastructure like road-widening, streetlights, footpath on V05 roads and expansion of V-6 roads.
He said there are no marriage palaces in the city. "In the absence of marriage palaces, people have to go to Zirakpur for holding wedding functions, thereby causing loss of revenue to the administration and MC," he added.
Congress councillor Chandermukhi Sharma said tertiary treatment of three million gallon water, which will resultantly save 10 MGD of potable water, seemed a little impractical as a lot of places mentioned in the budget which are supposedly getting the tertiary water are not actually getting it.
He said places like Shantikunj and Rajindra Park do not get tertiary water as has been claimed in the proposal. He also added that there is some deficiency in the planning because if 10 MGD of potable water is being saved then why there do we need additional tubewells. “There are certain figures in the budget estimates that are different from those presented during the F&CC meeting.”
Nominated councillor Arshad Khan said under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), a memorandum of agreement was signed on October 27, 2006 between the Ministry of Urban Development and the Administration to impose property tax residential property.
He said Rs 406 lakh and Rs 732 lakh was received on account of 25 per cent of assistance from Government of India under the JNNURM project in 2007-2008, but so far no official announcement has been made on the imposition of tax on residential property, which clearly seems to be a contravention of the spirit of agreement made between the administration and the Urban Development Ministry.
Khan also pointed out towards the non-inclusion of issues like poverty alleviation, provision for disaster management, allocation of funds for the welfare of elderly and insurance scheme for the firemen in the budget.
City to get another stadium soon
THE Municipal Corporation Chandigarh has decided to construct an athletic-cum-football stadium of international standards in the city. After approving the proposal, the corporation has decided to look for a suitable land for the stadium and approach the Centre to earmark sufficient funds for the same.
The proposal for the construction of the stadium was moved by councillor Brigadier (retd) Kuldeep Singh Chandpuri. He suggested that the administration should identify and earmark suitable land in northwest of the city for a sports complex, where exclusive competitions of athletics and football at national and international level can be held.
He said stadiums in the city do not meet the technical and administrative requirements of international level.
"There is no adjoining warming up track and the parking facilities are also insufficient. To promote athletics and to bring the city on the national and international map, we must conduct national and international championships. For this, there is a dire need to have modern athletics stadium with the latest training facilities and equipment of international standards," he said.
Chandpuri said due to the latest changes of measurements, an athletic track and a football stadium can now be combined in one stadium, it is felt that suitable land should be earmarked for the purpose.
"Industry, tourism and trade could also be associated with this venture, as has been done in many countries including Korea, Malaysia and Qatar," he said. He added proposed 8 acres of land reserved for the construction of a stadium in a southern sector is not only insufficient for building a stadium, but also has the major drawback of its location being very close to residential areas and on the flight-path of aircrafts operating from the city airport.
He said after the coming up of the proposed international airport, the proposed site might be rendered technically unsound due to the noise, pollution and sound of the aircrafts. He said site, therefore, needs in-depth deliberations by experts, associated with such projects.
"Besides requesting the Central government to earmark sufficient funds, public private partnership with the UT Administration in mega project can also be examined," he added.
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