Last five years a mixed bag

The wards witnessed a large number of greenbelts and parks being constructed. New play equipment made of fibre replaced the age-old swings of iron. Huts were constructed in the greenbelts and neighbourhood parks and walking tracks made.

The civic body installed paver blocks at all possible places. The quantity and quality of these paver blocks led to protests from the people. The internal roads were widened. Community parking proposal was introduced. Some community centres were renovated and additional facilities provided. While a few villages witnessed development tasks being undertaken,the others were completely neglected.

The projects of the civic body introduced in the past five years could not be streamlined. The Garbage Processing Plant that was installed at Dadumajra for dealing with the problem of disposal of garbage was involved in the midst of controversies. The Night Food Street is in a mess due to the policies adopted. The proposal of modernization of dhobi ghats is yet to be implemented in all the sectors.

Stalled projects

The multilevel parking lot that was proposed in 2007 is yet to see the lights of the day. Facing one roadblock after other,it has been stalled. The booths of the AC Fish and Meat Market that was constructed in Sector 41 have found no takers due to the high price. Even though the booths were constructed to to accommodate vendors who were selling fish in the open,the policies were not conducive for this.

The work on a Food Street in Sector 48 has not started even though the foundation stone was laid two years back. A number of projects are stalled due to the plans not being cleared by the architecture department.

Controversies & tussles

The five-year term witnessed tussles between the councillors and officials over a number of issues. One bone of contention was the distribution of power between the elected representatives and the executive. Subsequent Mayors were at loggerheads with the officials over “interference in official work”. The relations went so sour that the officials staged a walkout from the General House Meeting. The Mayors demanded the power to write ACRs of officials.

The foreign tours of the councillors generated much debate since no concrete proposals were generated. Inauguration of projects and names being printed or going missing from invitation cards led to a number of tussles.