The new Mayor, Anup Gupta, is from the ruling party and close to the sitting MP. He should procure more funds from the Centre and spend judiciously on improvement of education and medical facilities in the city. He should ensure that all his councillors spend allocated funds well in time and judiciously.
NPS Sohal, Chandigarh
Don’t burden people with new taxes
The new Mayor should ensure 24×7 water supply in the entire city. No new taxes should be levied. Cleanliness in the city has become a major issue and the first citizen should make sure it lives up to its tag City Beautiful. Encroachments must be removed as well. Property tax and fee for booking a community cente should be slashed. He must make the MC wings corruption-free.
Kirpal Singh
Tackle stray dog menace effectively
The number of dogs in parks and residential areas has increased multifold. The MC has failed to sterilise and vaccinate them. Dogs attack people in parks and chase vehicles. Dog poop spoil the clean environs. Just like pet owners are required to register their animals, street dogs should be registered by the MC. Councillors have expressed helplessness due to animal protection laws. The Mayor should approach court to seek permission for one-time depopulation and thereafter, control the breeding.
Col PS Gill (retd)
Decongest roads, improve parking
With the appointment of new Mayor, the city’s expectations for development have risen. It is hoped that he take measures to decongest roads for smooth flow of traffic and improve conditions at parking lots. Cleanliness and beautification of the city to keep the sanctity of its label “City Beautiful” is the need of the hour.
Abhilasha Gupta, Mohali
Make most of opportunity
Though the new Mayor has a limited tenure, he should make most of the opportunity to improve the civic amenities in the city. He should be given a free hand to tackle the problems and fulfil the needs of the City Beautiful. Let him also make all-out efforts to accomplish various key projects initiated by his predecessor during her similarly placed brief tenure.
Vinayak, Panchkula
Make Chandigarh smart city
The new Mayor must focus on the agenda of making Chandigarh a smart city. Segregation of dry and wet waste and disposal of the waste needs top attention. Suitable space should be provided to street vendors to operate in the city. Begging at traffic lights must be stopped as it poses danger to both commuters and beggars. Online payment of water and electricity bills should be encouraged. Paid parking lots should be more user friendly. Staff there should be in uniform and help vehicle owners move in and out of the area.
Yash Khetarpal, Panchkula
Resolve traffic, garbage issues
The Mayor should resolve the traffic and parking issues in Chandigarh. In the past few years, the traffic situation in the city has become worse, especially during morning and evening hours. Carpeting and recarpeting of roads should be a priority for him. Waste segregation and flattening the dumping ground would surely improve the city’s rank on cleanliness index.
Sunny Dhaliwal, Chandigarh
Improve city’s
Swachh rank
The first and foremost priority for our Mayor should be to take affective steps to improve the city’s ranking in Swachh Survekshan. He should ensure better waste management, improved primary health system and no parking issues in the city. The City Beautiful should be made more digital oriented. CCTV surveillance should be increased, covering all vulnerable points of the city.
Col TBS Bedi, Mohali
No need for 24-hr water supply
Providing 24-hour water supply in Chandigarh is not good for future generations. We, as residents, are satisfied with the two-time supply in a day. Allowing 24×7 supply would only lead to wastage of water. The new Mayor must consider this.
Sonu Verma, Chandigarh
Find a solution to parking woes
The Mayor should bring an end to chaos on roads during peak hours and find a solution to parking woes. He should ensure street lighting and road repair work in southern sectors. He should work towards making the city reach the top rank in the next cleanliness survey. Management and disposal of waste should be taken care of as well.
Wg Cdr (Dr) JS Minhas (retd), Mohali
Seek more funds
from UT Admn
The dumping site should be shifted away from residential area. The Mayor should demand more funds from the UT Administration to make city roads pothole-free. He should eradicate corruption, ensure adequate parking arrangements, cut wasteful expenditures to avoid levy additional taxes and provide best services to residents.
Col Balbir Singh Mathauda (retd)
Improve efficiency
of MC officials
During his one-year tenure, the Mayor should accord top priority to augment projects in pipeline. Focus should be on areas where civic amenities are inadequate. He should do his best to bring the UT back among the top three cities in Swachh rankings. He should improve door-to-door garbage collection system among other things. There is a need to remove encroachments in market corridors. Efforts must be made to improve the efficiency of MC officials.
Vidya Sagar Garg, Panchkula
no bias, Take all councillors along
Anup Gupta took over as Mayor amid a lot of drama and may have to face tough times ahead while running the civic body. He should take everybody along, irrespective of the political party they belong to. People elected councillors in a hope that they will ensure development for them. Therefore, they all have to come together for the betterment of the city. He should coordinate with the UT Administration in order to run the civic body smoothly. Only collective efforts of MC and UT officials would see the things going the right way for the city.
Sanjay Chopra, Mohali
Lower potable water tariff for poor
Water tariff is very high in Chandigarh and beyond reach of poor people. Basic principle of ;By the people, of the people and for the people’ should reflect in government actions. A sustainable potable water tariff system is need of the hour. Poor people and small houses should be provided water on discounted rate as they are not using water to wash cars or maintain huge lawns. Lower the potable water consumption, lower should be the tarrif.
Vijay Shukla, Chandigarh
Stop splurging on study tours
The Mayor of should pay more attention to cleanliness, traffic and parking issues. These problems mainly affect residents of southern sectors, which are thickly populated. The MC shouldn’t waste money on study tours as these are neither of any use to the city nor its residents. Only councillors and their families benefit from such trips.
Sukhwant Bhullar, Chandigarh
Ensure smooth run
of MC House
There could be difference between the ruling party and the Opposition, but the House should be run in a democratic way. Voice of public should be heard and actions taken accordingly. All members should collectively work towards improving waste collection system, ending parking woes, maintaining roads, street lights and parks, pruning overgrown trees and axing dry ones.
Sumesh Kumar Badhwar, Mohali
End stray menace, parking woes
Menace of stray animals and proper management of parking lots are among the major issues in the city. Stray cattle and dogs roam freely on roads posing danger to passersby and traffic. Animal dung and excreta on roads, parks and pavements spoil the beauty of the city. It is essential to curb the menace to improve the city’s ranking in Swachh Survekshan.
RPS Chopra, Chandigarh
Focus on waste management
Public expect the new incumbent to give a scientific push to waste management and processing. Inadequate parking facilities in the city is another major concern for public and multi-level parking, especially in commercial areas, needs to be given a serious thought.
SS Arora, Mohali
Maintain parks, Get rid of loose cables
Loose cables at different places need immediate attention to avoid risk to people, especially at night. Quality of potable water needs to be improved. The threat of stray dogs in public parks and residential areas too has to be effectively dealt with. Piped gas connections in all sectors, upkeep of public parks, removal of encroachments by unregistered vendors, etc, are among other matters expected to be resolved by the new incumbent.
Dr Anil Kumar Yadav, Chandigarh
Cash-hit MC should
go for austerity
Every now and then, the MC offers the excuse of insufficient funds to stall welfare schemes. First of all, the financial health of the MC should be improved by adopting austerity. A function is held even to inaugurate a small toilet block. Such expenses are easily avoidable.
Bharat Bhushan Sharma
efficient grievance redress required
Good governance with an effective and efficient redressal system should be the priorities of the new Mayor. Among other expectations from the Mayor are smart city tag for Chandigarh and construction of more cycle tracks.
Dr Rajeev Kumar, Chandigarh
Proper drainage, sanitation needed
City needs a proper storm water drainage system to ensure no more flooding of roads during rainy season. Proper sanitation, especially in the back lanes, garbage disposal, streamlining recovery of property tax and other dues from defaulters, renovation of parks and community centres needed to make Chandigarh smartest city of the country.
Col KJ Singh (Retd)
Give priority to upkeep of parks, street lights
Roads, parks and street lights should be on the Mayor’s priority list. Special attention must be paid towards maintenance of parks, which often have broken swings and overgrown grass.
Dr Shruti K Chawla, Chandigarh
QUESTION
Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in Panchkula have been demanding a complete ban on construction of apartments on the lines of Chandigarh, citing increasing burden on basic amenities and danger to the adjoining houses. Should the construction of stilt plus four floors in Panchkula continue or be stopped?
Suggestions in not more than 70 words can be sent to openhouse@tribunemail.com
