UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit on Tuesday announced a six-month extension for the tenure of the incumbent Administrator’s Advisory Council during the council meeting.
The council meeting was held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Purohit, in the presence of additional solicitor general of India Satya Pal Jain, UT advisor Dharam Pal, mayor Sarabjit Kaur, members of the council, and senior officials of the Chandigarh administration at Hotel Mountview. Noted absentees included Member of Parliament Kirron Kher.
Members of the council’s ten standing committees, education, urban infrastructure & planning for the city committee, environment, health, art tourism, culture and heritage, law and order, sports, social welfare, transportation and environment voiced the issues before the chair during the meeting.
Considering the importance of the pending issues, the administrator extended the tenure of the existing Advisory Council for another six months.
This is the second extension for the current council, the original tenure for which ended on August 5 last year. The then UT administrator VPS Badnore had given an extension up to March 31, 2022 at the time.
UT administrator lauds council members’ work
The administrator appreciated the role of the council members in putting forth the issues affecting lives of people and taking steps in the best interest of the city during the meeting.
Speaking about the protection of Sukhna Lake, the administrator assured that no changes would be made without consideration of the standing committee on art tourism, culture and heritage.
{{/usCountry}}Speaking about the protection of Sukhna Lake, the administrator assured that no changes would be made without consideration of the standing committee on art tourism, culture and heritage.
{{/usCountry}}The council also raised the issue of improving the overall infrastructure at schools, which also included the recruitment of teachers. The administrator, meanwhile, emphasised the need of recruiting the teachers only on merit basis.
Purohit directed the education department to chalk out a plan with resident welfare associations to use the school playgrounds in each sector after school hours for children.
The committee on sports also apprised the Council that the draft sports policy will also be prepared and submitted in the next 2-3 months.
The members appreciated the administration’s move to initiate the auction of commercial properties from leasehold to freehold. The administrator assured the issue pertaining to the properties already auctioned to various stakeholders on leasehold will also be resolved soon after deliberations with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
On the prevailing issue of FAR, conversion of properties from leasehold to freehold, usage conversion policy in respect of Industrial Area sites, Purohit asked the traders to comply with the process of survey. He assured that a comprehensive policy will be formulated for the redressal of existing issues of traders of Industrial Area after the completion of this survey.
Environmental and social issues discussed
The environment committee said the administration has been following the aggressive approach to ensure complete use of tertiary treated water for agricultural, industrial purposes by the end of this year.
The committee also highlighted the need to create more door-to-door awareness about the waste segregation, as this is the joint effort of the public and administration. The administrator appealed to the social workers and NGOs to help educate residents about the problem at hand. The council also appreciated the electric vehicle policy.
To help with the issue of rising beggars on the city streets, Purohit directed the police and social welfare officials to work in tandem with each other. “We shall be sympathetic towards these children and think about ending this issue from its roots,” he said.
In his concluding remarks, the administrator asked the administration officials to resolve all the pending agendas raised in this meeting within the next six months, adding that the new committee shall be formed only after the chair has dealt with all the pending issues.