MC allows public help in development works

CHANDIGARH, January 17: The cash-strapped Patiala Municipal Corporation has for the first time in its history mobilised public participat...

CHANDIGARH, January 17: The cash-strapped Patiala Municipal Corporation has for the first time in its history mobilised public participation in various development works, including drinking water supply and laying of sewerage lines, in certain peripheral colonies of the city.

Work on the ambitious Rs 5 lakh project for the provision of sewerage lines and drinking water supply in the Hem Bagh Officers Enclave, at the rear of the new Moti Bagh Palace, is expected to commence from the next week. Residents of four colonies, namely the Hem Bagh Officers Enclave, Hem Singh, Good Earth Colony and the Malwa Colony, have formed an association for the welfare of residents.

Development works in these colonies, with the residents raising funds and the municipal corporation making available equal amounts, are planned to be executed in a phased manner. In the first phase, the Hem Bagh Officers Enclave, comprising 22 beautifully built houses, is to be covered under the development scheme with the residents having contributed Rs 10,000 each per household for the project.

G.S. Rai, president of the welfare association of these four colonies, told ENS here today that a sum of Rs 2 lakh had been raised so far. He said that the Hem Bagh Officers Enclave came up almost a decade back but it still lacked a regular sewerage system and was without municipal water supply. The residents had made their own arrangements for these amenities. However, with the residents now offering to pool resources for the provision of these amenities, the municipal corporation had agreed to have the works executed departmentally. Rai said that after the completion of the water supply and sewerage work in this locality, it would be started in a phased manner in the other three colonies.

In the second phase, he disclosed that it was proposed to have concrete flooring of all the lanes in the colony besides plantation of trees.

Harkesh Singh Sidhu, commissioner, Patiala MC, confirming public participation in development works, said it was a novel experiment. He said the corporation had allowed a five-member team of the welfare association to oversee the execution of the works to ensure quality.

Meanwhile, Sidhu said the MC had yesterday carried out demolition of unauthorised buildings at 12 places in different parts of the city. He said that notices had been issued to a large number of commercial establishments in the city who had converted residential premises into business premises. These parties had been directed to deposit the compounding fee as prescribed under municipal rules.

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Sidhu said the state government taking a lenient view of the matter had ordered that the change of land use, in case of buildings that have come up before March 1998, be allowed if the parties agreed to pay compounding fee. This had been done to avoid massive demolition of unauthorised structures.

According to information available, two shops on the Bhadson road, two on the Sirhind road and Nabha road, the boundary wall of a private nursing home near the government Rajindra Hospital which had been illegally built, had been razed during the anti encroachment drive yesterday.