Chandigarh: RWAs raise concern over delay in payment

CHANDIGARH: There has been a delay in the release of payment to the resident welfare associations (RWAs), who manage the neighbourhood parks. The amount to be used for developing the open spaces which have turned out to be a den for the criminals, installation of tiles at apni mandi sites and monitoring sterilisation of stray dogs in the city has also not been released.

These are the various issues which the resident welfare associations (RWAs) have listed to Chandigarh Residents Associations’ Welfare Federation(Crawfed) to raise in the meeting with the municipal corporation commissioner K K Yadav, which will be held on March 3.

A majority of the resident welfare associations have raised the issue of increase in the numbers of stray dogs in their area, but they have also come up with a suggestion considering dog lovers.

Kuldip Singh Gill, while raising the issue of stray dogs being fed by dog lovers, suggested that the municipal corporation should come up with a dog pond where a shelter should be constructed for the dogs and residents could go there and feed the dogs by adopting them so that the corporation does not have to bear the financial burden alone.

He said there was an increase in the numbers of stray dogs in the city and the municipal corporation (MC) should monitor their system of sterilisation as well.

Another Crawfed member Kartar Cheema proposed in the suggestion list, which he submitted to the governing body, that tiles should be installed at the apni mandi of Sector 34, Chandigarh.

“This will be convenient for the visitors to walk in the mandi which turns miserable during rains,” he said.

He also raised the issue of delay in payment for managing the neighbourhood parks due to which they have been facing problems in paying salary and managing the area.

Another member proposed that the municipal corporation should also get the vacant area cleaned so that it could be used as a playground by children. They complained that due to the wild growth, these open spaces in the city had turned out to be a den for the criminals.

The members also proposed to raise the issue of encroachment by private tourist buses in Sector 21 and auto mechanics.

Hitesh Puri, chairman of Crawfed, said the purpose of inviting issues from the resident welfare associations was to list all the issues which the associations wanted to raise about their areas.

He said the governing body had already listed issues like community parking construction in the city, revamping of subway in Sector 22 and garbage collection.

The demand to get these buses removed from the passages was raised a number of times, but nothing has been done so far. The members have requested the Crawfed governing body to take up all the issues with the municipal corporation commissioner and get them resolved during the meeting as most of them have been hanging fire for a long time.