10th smart city camp: Residents share problems about bijli, paani, sadak

Besides the nodal officer of the smart city camp-cum-SDM (East) Danish Ashraf who initiated the camp, area councillors Naresh Kumar and Satish Kumar Kainth were present too.

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The residents of the EWS Housing Board flats complained about the inadequate water facility throughout the day and no fixed timings of electricity while the residents of Bapu Dham stated that there was only one playground for the entire area and that was ill-maintained. The residents of Sector 29 said that the people coming to offer namaaz at the mosque had to use the potholed roads.

However, one of the women present talked about sexual harassment some girl students had to face outside the government schools and how the girls had to walk on foot to schools 6 km away as the neighbouring schools were already overcrowded.

Few class XI and college-going students were also seen giving their suggestions. One of them highlighted the delayed admission counselling process of the UT education department due to which the candidates miss their first summative exams. He said, “There are some students who are yet to get admission to class XI while the first SA exams are already over. How will they cope with so much syllabus? The education department needs to prepone the deadlines for admission counselling.”

Some residents described the plight of parents paying donations to the private schools at the time of admission. They said the administration should add an official column in the android application where people could see the admission fees of all the private schools in the city.
The other common problem of the residents from the periphery areas was the lack of dispensaries, due to which they have to visit PGI, GMCH-32 or GMSH-16 for even a small check-up.

Ashraf said, “After these camps, we will focus on stakeholders, including students, women’s associations and slum associations. We are looking for ideas as to how we can improve upon the existing parks, quality of street lights, footpaths, security outside the schools, public toilets and android application.”

He added that the students were keen observers and the administration would hold special camps for them to hear more ideas and suggestions for the smart city mission.