Parliamentary panel for hike in allocation to Chandigarh

Dushyant Singh Pundir
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 5

In its report tabled in the Lok Sabha, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has recommended an increase in allocation of funds to the UT Administration to improve infrastructure in 13 villages.

The committee had recommended to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to take up the matter of increasing the allocation to the UT with the Ministry of Finance at the Revised Estimate (RE) stage for proper infrastructure development of 13 villages.

In the action taken report, the MHA has stated that there are 22 villages under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation (MC), of which 13 villages had been transferred to the civic body in 2019.

“The infrastructure for the services like drinking water supply, sewerage system and stormwater drainage system was built in these villages about 15-20 years ago. As these villages are in the vicinity of Chandigarh, their population has increased enormously, due to which the capacity of the infrastructure has become inadequate,” states the MHA.

It is observed that the sewer lines laid there are undersized to carry the sewage load, due to which sewage overflows and thus damages streets/roads. The blockage in sewer lines also leads to contaminated water supply. The drinking water supply needs augmentation to bring its level on a par with the urban norms.

The committee had observed that the UT Administration had been allocated Rs5,138.10 crore in the Budget estimates of 2020-21 which was Rs520.13 crore less than the projected amount of Rs 5,658.23 crore.

The committee observed that the significant shortfall would adversely affect the development of the 13 villages transferred to the MC. The committee, therefore, strongly recommended that the shortfall in budgetary allocation must be favourably looked into at the Revised Estimates stage.