Sec 63 residents rue lack of amenities

Amarjot Kaur

Tribune News Service

chandigarh, December 10

Located on Mohali’s (PCA) Stadium Road, Chandigarh’s Sector 63 is popularly known as Mohali’s Phase IX. By the virtue of a strategic geographical location, its dwellers stand accommodated by the Chandigarh Housing Board. With a total of 2,108 flats spread across 43 blocks, residents of this sector are deprived of basic facilities.

There’s not a single department store or a dispensary in the sector, which is home to the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium and an 11.8 acre Mohali International Hockey Stadium, which serves as the home ground for the hockey club, Punjab Warriors of Hockey India League.

But these are not the only harrowing inadequacies that weigh on the minds of the residents here. Repeated incidents of crime, especially theft, and a tight-knit labyrinth of small alleys that make for an easy escape route to Mohali have pushed the members of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) to demand a police beat box and a gated society, but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears since a year-and-a-half.

“Most owners have rented out their flats to young boys and couples who play loud music and party till wee hours. Often, couples refuse to adhere to society’s moral compass, making it difficult for families to live here. It’s becoming a nuisance with each passing day,” said Ashwani Kumar, president of 1BHK RWA.

He has even made a performa of sorts to personally track down the details of tenants at these flats and plans to attach it to the police verification form. “Most brokers send the verification forms to Sampark centres from where it takes some three months to reach the police station. I have a separate performa of their personal details, including the name of college and father and their vehicle numbers, along with an ID proof, preferably an Aadhaar card,” asserted Kumar.

For now, Kumar is comforted by the efforts of area councillor Heera Negi, who is getting open gyms and swings installed in the parks of the area. Of 14 parks, three will get a gym. “The expenditure of lighting, mounting swings and making gyms has been borne by MP Kirron Kher,” says Negi, who also assures that she has been pushing the case for making a local market and a community centre in the sector. “I have already spoken about it with the UT Finance Secretary Ajoy Kumar Sinha and UT Adviser Parimal Rai. “In fact, I had forwarded the letter for having a police beat box here to the IG, but I haven’t heard from him,” she added.

Earlier in November, as reported in The Tribune on November 12, 2018, a model was allegedly raped by a 28-year-old man at her rented accommodation in Sector 63. A month ago, Pawan Kumar (35), a senior resident doctor of oncology in Fortis Hospital who also resides in Sector 63, filed an FIR of theft at the Sector 49 police station.

Rinku Sinha, general secretary of RWA, said the sector was deprived of public transportation too. “We don’t have the CTU buses coming here. We have written to the authorities concerned and are hoping for a positive outcome,” she added.