‘Resignation not accepted, will stay’: Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit

Purohit, who has been holding the office since August 2021, had submitted his resignation on February 3 citing “personal reasons”. His resignation comes days after the Chandigarh mayoral polls in which the Aam Aadmi Party raised allegations of rigging and moved the Supreme Court.

‘Will revive employees housing scheme’

A day after the Chandigarh administration said in an affidavit in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it had decided not to go ahead with the self-financing housing scheme for UT employees, UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit said he would revive it. “If employees agree on collector’s rates, we will revive the employees’ housing scheme,” Purohit said, directing officers, saying “Let an affordable scheme be made for employees.”

The Chandigarh administration affidavit had said that “the implementation of the scheme at this stage is not viable in public interest”.

“Once the employees agree, we can submit another affidavit saying we have decided to revive it. Let them agree on it first,” Purohit said. “I am for the employees. And for those 4,000 employees, I am here and personally want the employees to have a house,” he added.

The Chandigarh Housing Board scheme was launched in 2008 to construct apartments for employees. As many as 3,930 applicants (employees) were selected through a draw of lots in 2010. However, they were not given possession as the construction never took off. In the meantime, the cost of each dwelling unit rose manifold.

‘Chandigarh in top 5 in 2 years, I promise’

Purohit said that Chandigarh would soon get an additional 100 electric buses. Eighty electric buses are currently running in the city. “It has been almost two-and-a-half years that I have been the administrator now. I promise that within two years, Chandigarh will be in the top five. The new plant [Dadumajra garbage processing plant] that will come up…will not create any problems for next fifty years….tendering of the same is in process,” Purohit said.

“Best UT in energy efficiency index, mobility sharing. Chandigarh got the first rank in the country in school education and is the best UT in crime and criminal network tracking system,” Purohit said.

He also spoke about how Chandigarh has been getting funds over the last few years. “As far as finance is concerned, Chandigarh has got increasing funds every year. The allocation was Rs 5,186 crore in 2020-21 and it increased to Rs 5,382 crore in 22-23. Then, it was Rs 6,087 crore in the budget allocation in 2023-24 while it was Rs 6,513 crore in 2024-25,” he said.

Purohit also said that Chandigarh would become a “model solar city” before 2030.

Projects worth Rs 628 crore on the cards

UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit said that the foundation stone of projects over Rs 628 crore has been laid. “Of these, Rs 165 crore is for colleges and Rs 123 crore for urban development,” he added. “As many as 50 Arogya Mandirs have been made operational. About 50 per cent of MBBS seats have been increased. An MRI centre was started in GMSH Sector 16 on the PPP model…so there are many achievements in the health sector as well,” he said. “As I had promised, work is underway for five schools and five more are on the cards,” Purohit added.