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Hope to make Panchkula cattle- free in 2023: Mayor
Kulbhushan Goyal, 62, a civil engineer, who runs his own construction business, took oath as Panchkula mayor on January 5, 2021
Kulbhushan Goyal, 62, a civil engineer, who runs his own construction business, took oath as Panchkula mayor on January 5, 2021. Almost two years on, he speaks to Tanbir Dhaliwal about the promises fulfilled during his tenure and his outlook for the New Year.
When you took oath as mayor, you had promised the citizens that you would free the district of cattle and stray dog menace. However, cattle continue to roam the highways and there has been an increase in dog bite cases. Why has the civic body failed to check the issue?
Around 25,000 cattle have been sent to cow shelters over the last two years. We have sent 1,000 cattle to Sukhdarshanpur village, 1,500 to Sector 23, and 1,500 to the Nandishala shed. However, herders in villages adjoining the city keep abandoning non-milching or sick animals. By 2023, we hope to make the city cattle-free once and for all. As far as stray dogs are concerned, all we can do is sterilisation and vaccination. This year, 3,179 dogs have been sterilised.
At the time of the civic body elections, ensuring cleanliness was a major poll plank. However, garbage piles can still be seen on roads, and residents say sanitation workers do not show up for days. Why is the MC struggling to ensure basic cleanliness?
The city is facing no such issue. We have 686 sanitation workers and 20 tractor-trolleys have been deployed to pick up horticulture waste.
Door-to-door collection of segregated waste is not going well. Residents are still handing over waste to the old waste collectors as they say the newly appointed waste collectors are not regular. Your take?
We have not received any written complaints regarding door-to-door waste collection. We are trying our best to make the door-to-door waste collection system a success.
The NGT orders on the Jhuriwala dumping ground were quite hard hitting. Is the MC looking for another site?
The committee constituted by the Green Tribunal will decide on an alternative site. At present, we are hardly dumping any waste at Jhuriwala. We process around 200 metric tonnes of waste on a daily basis. The hue and cry over waste was raised by Congress workers and not residents.
This time, Panchkula reported a high number of dengue cases and deaths. Could better understanding between the departments controlled the spread to some extent?
For the last seven days, we have been carrying out fogging in affected areas. The spread began in Kalka, which is not in our jurisdiction.
It is motorists’ regular grouse that roads get destroyed months after recarpeting. Your take?
This is not true. We have spent around ₹12-14 crore on road work. If people keep throwing waste on roads, the roads will get eroded.
There are a few stretches, which always get clogged during monsoons. What measures were taken this year?
A new pipeline has been laid to solve the issue of water drainage in Sectors 8,9 and 10. The problem is still persisting in Sector 19, for which we have sought permission from the railways to install a drain next to the railway track. .
