Chandigarh: Majority of councillors skip workshop on smart city, Adviser takes note

Of the 25 elected and nine nominated councillors, only a handful attended the workshop which was organised to finalise the vision and sub-goals for the Smart City Challenge in order to make it to the list of top 20 cities. The civic body has a major role to play in the challenge as it is required along with the administration to make proposals for strengthening the city’s governance and its social, physical and economical infrastructure.

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Those who attended the workshop included BJP councillors Saurabh Joshi, Arun Sood, Heera Negi and Satinder Singh. Babu Lal, Major (retd) D S Sandhu and M P Kohli, all nominated councillors, too, attended the workshop.
Mayor Poonam Sharma, who was scheduled to address the gathering, claimed that her husband was unwell. “My husband is undergoing treatment and had informed home secretary about it,” said the mayor, adding that she did not know why the other councillors did not attend the workshop.

Former mayors Raj Bala Malik, Pardeep Chhabra and Subhash Chawla cited personal reasons for not attending the workshop.

Nodal officer (smart city mission) Danish Ashraf said that all the elected representatives were informed about the workshop well in time. He claimed although the presence of all the councillors would have been beneficial, the workshop went on well and the proposals were shaping up well.

Bone of contention

In the last few months, the elected representatives have been at loggerheads with the administration claiming that they are being sidelined by the administration.

The councillors, on a number of occasions, have expressed their displeasure over the decision of the administration to impose house tax as well as proposals to increase parking fees and water tariff. They have accused the administration of bypassing them on discussions related to the smart city project.

“The smart city project is a prerogative of urban local bodies, but the administration is sidelining the elected representatives and the mayor,” said BJP councillor Saurabh Joshi, adding that the administration should take the councillors along rather than ignoring them.