Storm water gullies pose danger
By Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service

SAS NAGAR, Dec 14 — The list of nightmares for motorists plying on the roads in the township is growing. To add to the usual traffic hazards of a stray animal venturing on the roads or crashing in to a pothole are uncovered or broken storm water gullies.

The broken or uncovered storm water chambers are being “used” by safai karamcharis to dump garbage, dry leaves or other waste material gathered during sweeping of the roads. As a result, the storm water drainage system has been chocked for the past several months.

A survey of the township reveals that barring a few storm water chambers which had been repaired and covered with new cement grills, the covers of the storm water gullies are broken or missing. Starting from the main road of Phase 11 and moving towards Phase 6, one comes across a number of storm water gullies that are hardly visible. Some of the storm water chambers on the road in front of the Khokha market in Phase 11 are in need of urgent repair.

Most of the storm water gullies on the main road passing through Phases 1, 2, 3B1, 3B2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 have broken covers. In Phase 9, the cemented portion of a footpath around it has caved in. The lackadaisical attitude of the department concerned can be gauged from the fact that a few months back a portion of earth dug to construct a storm water gully near the traffic lights of Phases 3B 1 and 5 (as seen in the photo) had become a death trap for road users and pedestrians.

Investigations reveal that the dug-up portion of the earth had been left as such after the location to construct the storm water gully was changed. The job of maintaining the storm water gullies is that of the Public Health (Sewerage) Department which is paid for the same by the municipal council.

Mr H.S. Billa, President of the council, claimed that the Public Health Department had started the repair of the storm water gullies from the Phase 6 side.

Another section of the sufferers are the residents of the Sectors 70 and 71 being looked after the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA). Mr J.S.Cheema, General Secretary of the Sector 70 Social and Welfare Association, said the storm water gullies, constructed in the late eighties, remained buried under mounds of earth. Repeated representations to the PUDA had failed to solve their grievance, he said.

Another resident of the sector, Mr Hardeep Singh, said two migrant labourers had fallen into an uncovered storm water gully.

Time is running out for City Beautiful
By Sarabjit Singh

CHANDIGARH: CITY Beautiful is unfortunately, but surely, losing much of its beauty. It appears to be sliding the way of most other cities in the country, which are characterised by crowds, traffic, dirt and a total lack of enforcement of rules and regulations. With the increase in the population, both permanent and migrant, the pressures on the city are increasing. In a free country, the entry of people to the city cannot be banned. What can be done is to strictly enforce the rules.

It is alarming to see that anyone and everyone feels free to set up shop, or even home, wheresoever they please. This is evident from the proliferation of unauthorised jhuggis coming up in various part of the city. Surely, the Administration has the power to stop this proliferation in spite of the politicians who support such unauthorised colonies, which provide them with vote banks.

Shops of every description are mushrooming in every sector. On pavements, in market corridors, under trees, even rehris on busy roads. There are pan-bidi shops, barbers, cycle repair shops, cobblers, clothes ironing shops, scooter mechanics, food and tea stalls just about anywhere. In the corridors of Sector 17, and all around them, hawkers sell goods of all types. In most markets, the shopkeepers themselves turn the market corridors into extensions of their shops by storing goods in the corridors, oblivious to the inconvenience caused to the public. Kiran Bedi’s brief tenure in the city did wonders in tackling this last problem. Now that she has gone, things are back to square one.

It is an open secret that there are a large number of unlicensed rickshaws plying in the city, yet no concerted action seems to be taken to tackle this problem. An occasional drive is conducted to evict hawkers selling goods unauthorisedly or to apprehend unlicensed rickshaws. But this seems just an eyewash, for, within a few days they are back, and it’s business as usual.

Another problem is the tendency of these migrant workers to sleep, wash, bathe and defecate where they please. Many rickshaw drivers congregate at the Leisure Valley in Sector 10, or the Children’s traffic park in Sector 23 to answer the call of nature. Any place with trees and bushes attracts them. Such places have begun to stink of excreta. Some of the most pleasant places in the city are being ruined.

Chandigarh may well go the way of Calcutta, Mumbai or Delhi if things continue the way they are. In Calcutta, most of the pavements are taken over by unauthorised hawkers. In some areas, once the pavements are full, hawkers even set up shop on part of the carriageway, on certain roads. With the support of shortsighted politicians who helped the hawkers to unionise, and with much of the police force on hafta, it has become impossible for the Calcutta Corporation to do anything at all.

In Mumbai, a similar situation prevails around Flora Fountain. Many of Delhi’s pavements too have been taken over by hawkers, and the proliferation of unauthorised dwellings in many areas, is well known.

If Chandigarh is to avoid a similar fate, the Administration and the Municipal Corporation must jointly take strict action to enforce the rules on a continuing basis. Chandigarh provides several avenues for people to do business in a legal manner. There are small booths in markets, there are rehri markets, and there are weekly mandis. It might not be a bad idea for the authorities to earmark a separate area especially for the use of hawkers — a sort of flea market — where no construction of any type would be permitted. In any event, no one must be permitted to set up shop, or home, other than in approved places.

The question is whether the Administration and the Municipal Corporation have the will to enforce the law and do what is right for the future of Chandigarh. Time is running out for City Beautiful.

Punjabi who is ‘poet laureate of Germany’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 14 — "I have been separated form the Punjabi language for 19 years now," declared Rajwinder, a Punjabi journalist, writer-poet and cultural activist settled in Berlin, Germany, and writing in the German language, at a Ru-Ba-Ru session organised by the Punjab Arts Council today at Punjab Kala Bhavan, Sector 16.

Earlier, while talking to TNS, Rajwinder said that there was no question of being uprooted from his own roots after having adopted German as his language for writing, "since I feel very congested by the idea of one's 'own' language, because for me just as roots of a tree grow in all directions, so does an individual's growth". So, now this "only Punjabi writer writing in German" says that it does not matter what language he expresses his thoughts in.

Rajwinder, the "poet-laureate of Germany", added that he takes a keen interest in the contemporary Indian writings.

He began the Ru-Ba-Ru session with a passionate Punjabi poem titled, Main Jhund Darakhtan Da Ban Jawaan, which has been included in Khushwant Singh's anthology, My Favourite Love Poems. Singing in his melodious voice, the writer-poet held the select audience in rapt attention.

Tomorrow evening at the same venue, another such session would be held with veteran poet Ajaib Kamal, settled in Kenya for over 30 years.

Unscheduled power cuts irksome
From Our Correspondent

DERA BASSI, Dec 14 — Unscheduled power shutdowns in villages and colonies for the past one week have created problems for the residents of this town.

Since the power cut also causes suspension of water supply, the residents are forced to draw water from handpumps. The authorities do not even inform the residents about the power cuts in advance to enable them to be ready to face the situation.

Mr Ramesh Chand, a resident, alleged that though the electricity board claims to sell power to other states, consumers in its own state are harassed for shortage of power.

Expressing ignorance about the power cuts, the Sub-Divisional Officer, said that the power supply was suspended to carry out repairs of transformers and to remove other technical faults. The subdivisional authorities themselves do not have advance information in this regard.