Residents’ body raises garbage,power bills and sanitation issues

Chandigarh: High garbage collection charges, increased power bills, and poor sanitation condition in the city remained the key issues in the monthly executive committee meeting of the Federation of Sectors Welfare Association of Chandigarh (

FOSWAC

) held on Sunday. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Baljinder Singh Bittu. Municipal councillor Arvinder Kaur Gujral also attended the meeting.

The discussion kicked-off with the subject of ‘door-to-door collection of garbage and the likely hike in rates for the same by the municipal corporation’. The members of FOSWAC said it is the duty of the

MC

to arrange for garbage collection and since the MC has failed to do its duty, therefore the RWAs made their own arrangement in their respective sectors.

Baljinder Singh Bittu, chairman, FOSWAC said MC is unnecessarily interfering with the door-to-door garbage collection scheme run by many resident welfare associations. He said that FOSWAC will oppose the move with all possible legal remedies. “Our request is, either the MC should float the tender for this job worth crores or they should handle the process directly under them in consultation with RWAs,” he added.

Municipal councillor Arvinder Kaur Gujral confirmed that MC has yet not taken any final decision on the issue of hike in garbage collection rates so far. Further she said that RWAs should be empowered if MC is to succeed in their mission. She had some reservation regarding working of MC with regard to other issues like replacement of old lights with LED or distribution of dustbins for segregation of garbage.

Bittu raised the issue of conversion of

leasehold

property to freehold announced by the administration to be useless and against the interest of the owners of leasehold properties. “In case a person purchased a house thirty years ago against a sum of Rs. 6 lakhs, he will have to pay around 18 lakhs keeping in view the present prices to get it converted to freehold even though he has no intention to sell that properly. The administration is harassing the leasehold property owners especially the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) property owners,” Bittu said. He added that it is very strange that the CHB is harassing the property owners even after getting the full and final payment of that property.

Hitesh Puri, vice-chairman of FOSWAC opined that sectors 17, 19 and 22 should not be covered under Vender Regulation Act because these markets are over congested and there is no place which can be allotted to them. Sawachh Bharat Mission could not succeed without the involvement of RWAs at grass root level. The carpeting of roads is being done in the northern sectors where the roads are in much better condition, while it is the need of hour to take care of southern sectors due to high density of population.

Members also opposed the hefty bills of

electricity

being raised by the electricity department. Members also alleged that no action is being taken on menace of stray dogs.