Finally,defunct security gates to be made functional in Mohali

MC Executive Officer Vijay Kumar Gupta said this in a communication to local municipal councillor Kuljit Singh Bedi,who had last month threatened to drag the civic body to the court if the gates were not made functional,within a month.

The MC EO wrote that after resolving to replace the existing gates with a new design and specification at a MC meeting held on December 29,2009,the engineering wing of the MC had prepared four designs and specifications,of which MC president Rajinder Rana has approved a design and specification.

“The contractor has been asked to install a gate with new approved design and specification,following which others gates should also be made accordingly,” Gupta said.

It was in August last year that a private firm had installed 39 security gates in all 11 Phases under Mohali MC limits but so far,the gates,installed at the entry and exit points of all the phases to keep a round-the-clock vigil and check the entry and exit of the visitors to the specific area,had remained defunct and had failed to serve the purpose as nobody was deputed to close and open the gates,which in turn remain wide open all through the day.

The gates were installed on the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis by a private contractor,who would operate the gates for six years continuously before transferring them to the MC for future operation. Though the gates had yet failed to secure the area,the contractor had started earning revenue from sole advertisement rights,which he has been given.

As per the scheme,the entry and exit of the houses was to specified and restricted through specific gate,on which their numbers were to be displayed and it was left as per wish of the area residents to decide the opening and closure timings of the gates and how to check the entry and exit of the outsiders to the area but no such system was put in place as yet.

It was on the recommendation of former Mohali SSP Jatinder Singh Aulakh that the MC,at its meeting on February 27,2009,had unanimously resolved to install security gates.

Aulakh had made the recommendation in view of the rising number of thefts even during daytime across the city,which he had attributed to the free access to the outsiders,vendors and suspected elements without any check.