Punjab & Haryana High Court on June 25, took suo motu cognizance of the infrastructure issues and other development works in the city. The court asked the UT Administration and MC of the planning and development works that need to be undertaken for the city in order to maintain the beauty of the city and not turn it into another “urban mess”.
The court observed that the city is suffering from a multitude of issues such as traffic congestion, maintenance of green belts, sewage treatment and garbage dumping. Court said that that so far administration has failed to cope with the urban growth effectively and the city is headed for chaos and will turn into another urban mess.
High Court observed that “Since the town is a Union Territory, it suffers from futuristic long-term development plans on account of administration being headed by the bureaucracy which is posted in Chandigarh on deputation basis for short periods of around 2-3 years.” Besides the short tenure of the officials, the court also pointed to the lack of elected representatives, as the mayor holds office for just one year on rotation basis and there is a lone Member of Parliament.”
The court, taking suo motu note seeking response from UT and Center said, “The town thus suffers from planned infrastructural projects coming up, though it has to host a large number of visitors, who come to the city on daily basis on account of town being the capital.”.
It is to be noted that initially, Chandigarh was designed for a population of 5 lakh people. Also, no urban development was to be planned with an area of 16 km of the city. But both Punjab and Haryana set up Mohali and Panchkula townships in the vicinity of Chandigarh. So, the area meant to reside 5 lakh people is not housing 30-40 lakh people.
