Thursday, 15 July 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Stating that none of the residential buildings will be demolished in slum areas in Dehradun, Rajpur Road MLA Khajan Das assured the councillors that proposal for regularisation of slums will be considered in the next meeting of the cabinet. He also stated that the time period of the ordinance for the same which is about to end this year will be extended in the next cabinet meeting by three years. Das said this while responding to a councillor’s question who asked about the State government’s stand in this matter in the board meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) on Wednesday. He also added to his statement that the government will work on reformation and beautification of the slum areas too, especially those built alongside Rispana and Bindal rivers.
In the meeting chaired by mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’, various issues were raised by the board members. One of the major issues raised by many councillors was the delay in the installation of LED street lights. According to councillors, the MCD continues to claim that LED street lights are being installed but many wards still have no street lights installed despite their appeals to the corporation for over two years. MLA Umesh Sharma ‘Kau’ from Raipur constituency also agreed that many areas are deprived of LED street lights in his constituency too and appealed to the mayor to finish the installation work by the end of this month. Besides this, he also expressed his disappointment by stating that he had asked the MCD team to send him a Detailed Project Report (DPR) regarding the renovation of the mini stadium in Ajabpur Kalan about two years ago but he has not received any report till now. “I even said about providing Rs three crore for this renovation of the mini stadium but the engineers from MCD never got back to me with the DPR,” asserted the Raipur MLA.
On this, the mayor asked the officials to prepare a report and present it to the MLA soon. Another major issue raised by the councillors was traffic issues caused within colonies due to the carts of vegetables and fruit vendors. According to the councillors, many vendors who belong to other states have started to run their carts in the city that causes traffic congestion and affects the business of the local vendors too. On this, the mayor stated that the corporation will ensure that licenses are issued to the local vendors only. Besides this, MCD will seize the carts running without a valid license during inspections and would not return them, stated the mayor. Besides this, ‘Gama’ also announced to spend about Rs 50 crore on development projects in the city this year. He also decided to keep the budget of Rs 1.5 crore aside for the annual maintenance of MCD owned buildings besides keeping the amount of Rs five crore for the maintenance of buildings like Kanji House, Gau Sadan and Gandhi Park among others. Moreover, the mayor also decided to keep at least twenty oxygen cylinders in the MCD premises in view of the probable third wave of Covid-19. He said that several people approached the MCD for help regarding the oxygen cylinders but it had not sufficient means to provide the assistance. Now keeping these supplies ready, MCD will be able to help the needy in future, stated ‘Gama’. He also asked the councillors to raise awareness against Covid-19 contagion in their respective wards to minimise the risk of Covid disease.
Meanwhile, the board also agreed on asking for 25 per cent of the revenue collected by Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) as a development tax within the city and soon, a proposal will be sent to the State government for the same. The corporation also decided to send a proposal to the State government for the approval of installing wire mesh over the parts of Rispana and Bindal rivers to prevent garbage dumping in the rivers. Plan to open a canteen in the MCD compound on public private partnership mode was also discussed in the meeting.
