Officers cannot run city: Mayor Anup Gupta takes on UT again

CHANDIGARH: Mayor Anup Gupta has once again taken on the UT administration, backing his councillor’s outburst against officials during an executive meeting of the Chandigarh Residents Associations Welfare Federation (Crawfed) here on Sunday.

“Bureaucracy is the biggest hindrance to the development of Chandigarh. It is not public-centric. The Constitution provides rules for the country to run, but in Chandigarh, it is the bylaws, that too old ones, and the city is run as per suitability or convenience of officers,” said Saurabh Joshi, municipal councillor of ward number 12 at the Sector 15 community centre. His stinging remarks were supported by Gupta.

“I agree with Saurabh that the city should be run by citizens and not officers. Prime Minster Narendra Modi has said that bylaws need to be changed, but they continue here. A committee of councillors and RWAs will be set up to look into different issues because officers are not coming up with solutions. They only go by their rule books. We people have to stay here. We are able to take hard decisions, which you will see in the next few months,” said the mayor. This is the third instance of the mayor openly attacking the administration.

In February, Gupta had prevented a team of the estate office from sealing alleged illegal structures at Bharat Vikas Parishad, a charitable diagnostic centre, on the premises of Indira Holiday Home in Sector 24. Recently, the mayor had expressed unhappiness with the UT adviser holding a meeting with MC officials over the smart parking policy. The adviser had directed the officials to expedite floating of tenders for the parking lots. The mayor had said the smart parking policy should have been discussed in the MC house first as the management of parking lots falls within the purview of the civic body.

At the Crawfed meet, Joshi continued his tirade against the administration.

“There are many issues but the question is what vision we are carrying for Chandigarh. The reason behind these issues is afsarshahi (bureaucracy) and the ‘djinn’ of Le Corbusier. The CHB interprets bylaws as per officers’ convenience,” he said. “Can you call officers like the UT adviser or MC commissioner on a Sunday to interact with people? Your mayor can come, but not the officers. They come for a honeymoon package of three years. How we want to see Chandigarh by 2050? We have to talk about it. The architect office of the UT should be closed as it creates hinderances,” said Joshi.

Assuring public participation , the mayor said, “The MC is the only elected body where the city’s issues can be raised. Chandigarh will be garbage-free in the coming few months. On door-to-door waste collection, we are going to take hard steps and the Crawfed should support us. You will see a change in next the four to five months.”

A good number of members of different RWAs had turned up for the interaction with the mayor. As all of them started repeating same points, the organisers ended the interaction by saying the mayor has to go somewhere else.