Chandigarh
Going against the public sentiment, the municipal corporation (MC) House, in which BJP councillors have a majority, passed a resolution in favour of construction of the Tribune flyover.
This comes days after city’s leading voices including social activists, senior advocates and architects opposed the ₹183-crore project in the public hearing monitored by the Punjab and Haryana high court on December 23, claiming that it will prove disastrous for Chandigarh and plunge it into chaos, like the one seen near the Zirakpur flyover.
The high court on November 20 had stayed the uprooting and cutting of trees for the flyover project, virtually putting on hold its construction.
Sources said that the resolution was passed in the House at the behest of BJP MP Kirron Kher who was the force behind the project, but of late was not happy with the growing adverse public opinion against the project.
However, the final decision on whether the project stays or not rests with the high court which will hear the matter in January after the UT administration will submit the overall report of public opinion on the project.
FACTS NOT RIGHT
According to the resolution, assessed by HT, the councillors claimed that the UT administration invited objection from the general public regarding the project and most of them had favoured the project. Their stand is factually wrong as a majority of 80-odd people and NGOs which attended the public hearing had recorded their dissent against the project.
The councillors also claimed in the resolution that people living in Hallomajra, Ram Darbar, and those coming from Panchkula and Zirakpur will benefit from the construction of the flyover. However, this again is factually incorrect since the proposed project is exclusively over the Tribune roundabout, whereas there is no relief from traffic jams in other rotaries before it — one in Hallomajra and then Poultry Farm chowk or Ram Darbar chowk. Traffic experts say due to the flyover, traffic will increase manifold elsewhere too due to slow movement of traffic.
RTI activist RK Garg, who was one of the leading voices against the project, said, “I am surprised at the stand of the councillors for the project. Everyone knows that there are major anomalies in approval of the project as proper procedure was not followed in terms of studying the feasibility of the project. Yet, they went in project’s favour just because of their political compulsions. They are not doing justice with the city.”
NOT ENDORSING RESOLUTION: CONG
Congress councillors, on the other hand, said that they had not endorsed the resolution.
The resolution was not formally listed as it was moved as a table agenda after all the listed business got over. None of the five Congress councillors were present as they had staged a walkout due to their protest over the hike in water tariff and property tax.
Congress councillor Satish Kainth said, “There must be a reason why city residents are opposing the project. The BJP has failed to find a solution for rising traffic chaos in the city.”
