BJP has converted “City Beautiful” Chandigarh into “Garbage Mountain City”: Surjewala

Chandigarh, December 18, 2021: “Conspiratorial discrimination, cruel slashing of development budget, criminal indifference & insurmountable taxes are the only legacies of Modi Government & BJP-ruled Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.”
Randeep Singh Surjewala, General Secretary, AICC stated this while talking to media at the dumping group, Dadumajra here on Saturday.
He said,” India’s “City Beautiful” carved out of the vision & dreams of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru has been converted into “Garbage Mountain City” by Modi & BJP Government,”
“An insurmountable mountain of over 15 lakh tons of garbage in Dadu Majra chides the world known description of “City Beautiful”. The intolerable and poisonous smoke emanating from this mountain is playing havoc with the health of residents of Chandigarh,”
Talking about the real story of BJP-made “Garbage Mountain” city, Surjewala said that Chandigarh produces 500 tons of solid waste every day, which is nearly 2 lakh tons of solid wastes every year. While BJP has erected 10 lakh tons of Garbage Mountain in the last five years, not a penny has been spent for garbage processing. This is a telltale of criminal negligence. The only bigger garbage mountain of the height of Taj Mahal (73 Meters) is in the Kejriwal Government in Delhi.
He said, the Solid Waste Processing Plant has been lying shut down under the aegis of Modi Government & BJP-ruled Corporation. The processing of solid waste in Chandigarh now has been left in God’s hands.
Pawan Kumar Bansal, Treasurer-AICC & former Union Minister said that BJP-ruled Corporation has neither conducted an inquiry into the affairs of the private company responsible for running the Solid Waste Processing Plant nor has imposed a single rupee as penalty on this company. Collusion & corruption is, thus, writ large, he maintained.
Surjewala said that, BJP-ruled Corporation, on the contrary, has conceived a unique money spinner scheme by giving a contract to a private company worth Rs.24 crore for lifting and transporting the garbage out of Chandigarh. But the clever ploy is that in the last two years, garbage mountain has been set on fire three times. On one hand, Chandigarh’s clean air has been criminally polluted by setting on fire the garbage mountain and on the other hand, how many tons of garbage has been burnt instead of being transported out is unknown. Money has flown out of exchequer’s account with zero inquiry into the burning of garbage,”
Uptill 2017, “House to House garbage collection” was being undertaken in Chandigarh. BJP-Municipal Corporation handed over the same to a private company. Result was that garbage collection expenses shorted up by 300% to nearly 55 Crores. The cost of collection for the garbage employee which was Rs.17,000 in the year 2017 has gone upto Rs.45,000. This is how the exchequer's money is being siphoned off, he said.
Talking about betrayal of Chandigarh and imposition of insurmountable taxes, Surjewala said that Chandigarh people were forced for cruel increase in water & sewage rates.
“Uptill 2015, the water charges in Chandigarh were Rs.2 per kilo liter. BJP-Municipal Corporation and Administration have increased the water charges by over 50% to Rs.3 and Rs.6 per kilo litre. Not only this, the sewage charge per toilet sheet was only Rs.10. BJP has increased the same to 30% of the water charges. In view of impending corporation elections, these cruel charges have been temporarily withheld. To vote for BJP is to vote for the cruel and higher water & sewage charges in Chandigarh amounting to over 50% increase’”
Speaking on the overwhelming increase in House Tax, Surjewala said that in the year 2020 the “Tax Assessment Committee” recommended an increase of 20% house tax. This has affected 1,50,000 tax payers of Chandigarh – 1,20,000 in the residential category and 30,000 in commercial & industrial category. Rs.50 crore was already being collected and an additional burden of Rs.15 crore has been imposed.
Additional Blow of Sharp Rise on the charges for Property Purchase, Ownership Transfer, Lease Rights & Property Mortgage.
The charges for ownership/lease right transfer as also NOCs for Residential Property have been increased by 300% i.e. from Rs.2,000 to Rs.6,000. The NOC’s fees on purchase & sale of property has been increased from Rs.1,500 to Rs.5,000. The fee for mortgage of property has been increased from Rs.1,000 to Rs.5,000. The processing fee for purchase and sale of Shop-cum-Flats and Shop-cum-Offices, which was Rs.2,500/Rs.5,000, has been increased to Rs.10,000. This is brazen loot from people, he alleged.
There is a double whammy on Chandigarh with spurt in taxes & slashing of budget, he further alleged.
“In the year 2021-22, the Modi Government slashed the demand budget for development of Chandigarh by Rs.483.88 crore (Demand – Rs.5,670 crore, Sanctioned - Rs.5,186 crore).
During the challenging Corona times in the year 2020, Modi Government directed slashing of Chandigarh Budget by 20%. Net result was reduction of Rs.260 crore in every quarter. During pandemic, there was no money to even pay salary of employees and the entire development of the City came to a halt,”
He said further that as per recommendations of Delhi Finance Commission, Chandigarh should get 30% share of the revenue. The revenue of Chandigarh is Rs.4,000 crore. Chandigarh should be getting Rs.1,200 crore i.e. 30% share, but Modi Government has even slashed the same by over 50% to Rs.564 crore. This is blatant discrimination, he maintained.  

We will stop throwing garbage at Dadumajra ; says Pawan Bansal

Chandigarh, December 18, 2021: Pawan Kumar Bansal , Treasurer-AICC & former Union Minister said on Saturday that the first action of Congress would be to stop throwing of garbage at dumping ground Dadumajra within 6 months after coming to power at MC.

“We will look into alternative ways by setting up a new plant following the right process and disposal of garbage in a scientific way,” he said.

“In the past 6 years, the BJP led MC has turned the life of around 2 lakh people residing nearby the ground into a mess by dumping garbage in the ground without proper management.”

During Congress time, MC had dumped the loose soil at the dumping ground resulting in growing of grass there. Those were days during Congress when children used to play cricket there even international cricketers including Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Mongia played there but ironically now the ground remains covered with hovering eagles and crows.

In the lack of any planning BJP has virtually turned the dumping ground into a hell for nearby residents, he said adding after coming to power, we will also check misuse of money on segregation of garbage.