Chandigarh: French experts visit slums, interact with residents

CHANDIGARH: A team of the French experts interacted with different stakeholders on Thursday, including residents of the slums and rehabilitation colonies, by visiting their places and examining the current water supply and water billing system in their respective areas.
They also held a detailed conversation with NGO members, members of the resident welfare associations (RWAs) and municipal councillors. A technical session was held with the officials concerned over the grant and other related aspects at the Chandigarh Smart City office in the evening.
Starting their day early, the team of the French experts along with the MNC officials visited the slum Colony Number 4 at Industrial Area, Phase-I, and examined the water supply system. Since water supply in the area is being given through stand posts, they asked about the source of supply and other related questions. Further, they visited the EWS colony in Sector 32 and the rehabilitation colony in Maloya and asked residents about frequency of water supply in their respective places. They also checked the billing system of water supply and asked residents about the issues being faced by them.
The team also visited the Smart City office at Sector 17, and interacted with the NGO members, members of the resident welfare associations (RWAs) and municipal councillors. During the discussion, water tariff was the main point of the discussion. The members of the French team also asked about the view over the 24X7 water supply to know whether citizens wanted this facility or not.
During the discussion, members of the RWAs, councillors, NGO showed their keenness for the project, but also showed concern that the water tariff should not be exorbitant and must be under the limit of the paying capacity of each segment of society.
Later in the evening, during the technical session, issues related to financial grant and conditions of the grant were discussed in detail. Before summarising the matter, each financial aspect of the project was discussed and the MC officials asked queries and other related questions.