No stale I-Day speech for Patil

Doesnt want repetition of old achievements Admn in fix over inclusions

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service





Chandigarh, August 3

The UT Administrator does not want to ride on the achievements of his predecessors. Apparently stung by the criticism in the past for cashing in on old achievements in the Independence Day speech, the Administrator today categorically told the top brass of the UT Administration not to include previous projects in the list of achievements compiled as part of the speech.

Administrator Shivraj V Patil made it clear in a meeting with senior officials that announcements which were part of previous speeches on Republic Day and Independence Day functions, should not be included in his August 15 speech. He also told them to prepare a good speech and avoid statistics.

Various departments have now started compiling new achievements of their respective departments. But compared to achievements, there is a long list of failure and pending works.

Electricity department

The Administration claims that the electricity department is committed to providing uninterrupted power supply. But this year, the city witnessed major power crises. Southern sectors faced long unscheduled power cuts for 18 to 20 hours. The department failed to complete the upgradation of substations in Sectors 34 and 52, which cater to the southern sectors.

Engineering department

No solution was found to save Sukhna Lake from drying up. Most of the lake has dried up and the water level at the boating area has fallen to a foot. The department also failed to complete the construction of a six-storeyed OPD block at the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16 and the railway under-bridge at the level crossing near Mauli Jagran and Modern Housing Complex, despite announcements made by the UT Adviser in his Republic Day speech.

Licensing authority

This year, the pendency of registration cards is around 10,000 and drivers licences around 1,000. The RLA is giving three months time for the delivery of RC. There were regular complaints of shortage of RCs and snag in server.

City transport undertaking

The CTU has been in news due to several controversies ranging from the tragic death of Anupama, a student, and shortage of diesel and buses. The only achievement of the CTU is the night bus service that was introduced a few days ago. But the bus service on the Metro route, started recently, was a failure as there were not many takers for the service.

Tourism

Putting an end to the two-year ambitious project of night tourism, the ministry of tourism recently cancelled the project and withheld a grant of Rs 4.98 crore for it. Also, due to the depleting water level at Sukhna Lake, the boating business of CITCO was affected in a big way. The income from boating had gone down to Rs 5,000 every day compared to the earlier business of Rs 80,000 to Rs 90,000 daily.

Chandigarh Housing Board

The board has not earned anything in the last two financial years and has been incurring only losses. One of the worst-hit housing schemes is the General Housing Scheme, Sector 63, which was launched in 2008. Not a single brick has been laid so far. Similar is the status of the UT employees special housing scheme, for which the board is yet to take the possession of the land and even get environmental clearance for the six-storeyed flats. The only achievement of the CHB is that it recently handed over 602 flats to slum dwellers at Sector 49-C, which were constructed two years ago.

Education

There is only one smart school in Sector 53, which the education department can count as an achievement. There was a controversy in the process of inviting applications for the recruitment of 653 junior basic teachers (JBTs).

Finally, the Administration decided to invite fresh applications. The Administration failed to implement the RTE in private schools. The education department and private schools are still at loggerheads over the implementation of the RTE.

Information technology

The department has failed to improve the IT infrastructure in the city. The launch of the online grievance redress system is the only achievement of the department. The department has failed to bring any big player in the IT sector to the city.

Estate office

In the infamous booth scam, the estate office failed to complete the inquiry marked by the Administration. In the earlier report prepared by a former UT Additional Deputy Commissioner, PS Shergill, pointed at the involvement of top bureaucrats and politicians. But the estate office has failed to complete another probe marked to it.

Architect department

The department failed to complete the master plan of the city and once again sought six-month extension from the Punjab and Haryana High Court to prepare it. So far, the Administration has taken six extensions for finalising the plan since December 23, 2009, when the court had first directed it to finalise the plan within a year.

Employment

In the employment office, over 2,000 jobless people registered themselves from January this year to June-end. But the department managed to provide jobs to only 100 applicants.