Suggestions for mission smart city: Residents push for vehicle-free zones
Other suggestions included provision of security guards outside the government schools as well during the morning and the afternoon hours to prevent accidents.
The smart city consultation camp at Panjab University, Chandigarh, Wednesday. (Express Photo)
A VEHICLE-FREE zone at PEC University of Technology, Panjab University (PU) and PGI; multi-level parking nearby, 16-seater electric cab shuttle within the three campuses; single paid parking tag across the city and conversion of community centres into recreational centres were some of the suggestions made at the fourth smart city consultation-and-redressal camp organised Thursday on the PU campus.
At the camp that witnessed participation from university professors, chief security officer, Dean (Students welfare), members of teachers association, students, presidents of residents welfare association, area councillor and the residents of Sector 12, 15 and Khuda Lahora colony, over 150 people submitted their ideas and suggestions in writing to SDM (Central) Prince Dhawan, who coordinated the camp.
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The university professors discussed the dog and monkey menace and the traffic chaos on the campus. Dean Students Welfare Navdeep Goyal said while there are 15,000 students on campus, nearly 20,000 vehicles are seen daily. One of the professors urged the Administration to implement one-way traffic system towards the university from 9 am to 2 pm.
Residents of Khudalahora complained about the lack of dispensary, quality school, e-sampark centre and a police post in their area. Residents of PGI area raised several issues such as cleanliness, sanitation, inadequate parking, lack of parks, infrastructure and sewerage problems.
PGI director Dr Y K Chawla said, “The residents have given reasonable suggestions and I believe they can be worked out. I think that the bus stop outside the PGI entrance gate should be shifted a little bit and the bus timings should be updated for the convenience of patients and also the problem of biomedical waste should be taken up. It should not be seen as the responsibility of PGI alone.” Home Secretary Anurag Aggarwal, PEC director Manoj Arora, Chandigarh SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill and Chief Engineer Mukesh Anand were also present at the camp.
Placement of CCTV cameras across the city; provision of world-class facilities in the school playgrounds; separate tertiary water supply and timely registration of paying guests were the also discussed. One of the residents said, “I have been applying for my PG’s registration for the past 10 years but the officials still put our house number in the list of defaulters who have not got their PGs registered.”
Another woman resident of the same Sector also said she had been applying for the registration for the past 11 years but to no avail. To this, Prince Dhawan said the authorities would monitor the processing of the registration forms such that it could be done in a week’s time.
Some residents also criticised the “ill-maintained” official website of the UT Administration where the phone numbers are not updated and there are no regular updates.
Other suggestions included provision of security guards outside the government schools as well during the morning and the afternoon hours to prevent accidents, a WhatsApp group to complain about potholes or non-functioning streetlights, mechanised cleaning of roads and evening dispensaries for the senior citizens.
Area councillor Saurabh Joshi showed the audience a short video titled, ‘Ward vision’ highlighting the problems his ward is facing along with some of the suggestions for smart city project. Anurag Aggarwal said he would direct all the SDMs to show the video at all the other camps such that the other area councillors could implement the same practical ideas in their respective wards.
‘Smart policing app to be launched on October 6’
Chandigarh SSP Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill announced that UT Administrator Kaptan Singh Solanki would launch a “smart policing web-based application” on October 6, through which the city residents will be able to register complaints online. “The application will help residents since it will include contact addresses of all the police posts and police stations,” said Gill.
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