GURUGRAM: The
Haryana government on Wednesday appointed
Yash Garg as the deputy commissioner of
Gurugram. He is currently serving as the commissioner of the municipal corporation of
Faridabad.
A 2009-batch
IAS officer of the
Haryana cadre, Garg decided to opt for the civil services after completing MBBS from Delhi’s Maulana Azad Medical College. Garg spoke to TOI on his priority areas for Gurugram, and plans to deal with irregularities in land registries and address the issue of lack of coordination between multiple government agencies in the city.
Excerpts from the interview:Q. What would be your priority areas in Gurugram?I have never worked in Gurugram before and would need some time to know the ground conditions. But, in general, my priority work areas will be education, health, environment and water conservation.
Q. Serious irregularities in land registries in Gurugram have been reported recently. How do you plan to tackle such frauds?The state government has introduced a new system of
land registration. It has been implemented in Faridabad also, which is my current place of posting. I believe the new system is good and it in itself curtails a lot of illegal registries as well as the registration of illegal plots and unapproved areas, which had been happening.
I feel that the new system will curb corruption. The land registries, as you rightly pointed out, should be the focus considering the irregularities that happened in the past. A strict vigilance will be maintained and there is also an urgent need to train and sensitise the revenue staff. It would definitely be one of my priority areas.
Q. There are multiple government agencies in Gurugram and lack of coordination is a cause of concern. How do you plan to address this issue?The most important job for a DC in Gurugram will be to act as a coordinating agency so that the work and citizens don’t suffer due to lack of coordination between various agencies. This will remain my primary focus and work. In my previous postings too, I have enjoyed good and cordial relations with my fellow officers and I hope that there should not be any issue in coordination.
Q. Even though Gurugram has been reporting less number of Covid-19 cases now, it is still the worst hit-district in Haryana. What would be your plan to fight Covid-19 in Gurugram?There is a lot of inter-city movement between Delhi, Gurugram and Faridabad. If cases rise in Delhi, cases are bound to increase in NCR, including Gurugram and Faridabad. As far as the strategy goes, it has to be — test, trace and isolate. We have to increase testing, trace the contacts when people test positive and then isolate the positive people. The spread of the pandemic depends upon people-to-people contact.
Secondly, it would be important to encourage the Covid-appropriate behaviour till the time the vast majority of people are given the Covid-19 vaccine. Wearing masks and following social distancing remain the most important thing right now.
Q. How prepared is the district administration to deal with the farmers’ protest, given that they are camping at the Gurugram-Rewari border and waiting to march to Delhi via Gurugram? There is also a planned tractor rally on KMP expressway on Thursday.The administration is fully prepared and I believe that details related to it would be much better addressed by the worthy commissioner of Gurugram police. But the administration is acting as a senior unit. So, we are working in close coordination and hopefully there should not be any unfortunate or untoward incident on Thursday.