It is said that good neighbors are a blessing and are sometimes hard to find. If we talk about the neighbors of Chandigarh – Panchkula & Mohali – one belongs to Punjab and one to Haryana. However these 3 cities make up the Tricity and people often move from one city to another for work, leisure, shopping etc.
In a one of its kind effort to solve the issues in each of these cities, the Mayors of Tricity, Arun Sood of Chandigarh, Upinder Kaur Walia of Panchkula and Kulwant Singh of Mohali had a meeting for the very first time at Municipal Corporation office sector 17, Chandigarh. The meeting was held to promote the coordination on various interlinked and common issues of the three cities and get fruitful results.
The Mayor of Chandigarh, Arun Sood invited the mayors of two other cities for a meeting at Chandigarh. During this meeting many important decisions were taken and all three of them discussed various issues. Each of them shared their views on the areas where their city lacked and the ways to overcome the lacking things. It was decided to form a Council of Tricity Corporations.
Various issues discussed during the meeting:
Stray Dogs: During the talk among the mayors of tricity it was found that the sterilization programme of stray dogs in Panchkula and Chandigarh was carried out successfully but it was not satisfactory in Mohali. Mayor Kulwant singh decided to check the sterilization programme of Panchkula and Chandigarh to know the shortcomings.
Stray Cattle: Chandigarh Mayor told that the stray cattle from neighbouring cities enter Chandigarh at night and causes trouble for the traffic. This should be looked after by Mohali & Panchkula.
Encroachments: This is a problem for all 3 cities. A common solution should be found.
Sanitation: Teams will be formed to check the cleanliness of all 3 cities. However Chandigarh leads in cleanliness out of the 3.
Water supply: The issue of low water supply during summers was discussed among all 3 mayors of Chandigarh, Panchkula & Mohali.
Severage: The treatment plant was discussed.
Implementation of street vendors act: It was decided that the Street Vendors Act 2014 will be implemented. The vendors in Chandigarh will be registered on the basis of their Aadhar cards.
Some other major things discussed between the mayors of Chandigarh, Panchkula & Mohali include – Re- alignment of the boundaries of the tricity, fire and emergency services, co-ordination among these 3 neighboring cities, etc.
Earlier any issues concerning Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula were sent through letters to each other and it took time to reply. But now this face to face and on the table meeting will help in taking immediate decisions. The Mayors seemed to be satisfied with their first meeting. More such meetings would be held on a regular basis. The second meeting is planned to be held at Mohali.
Hope that opting such kind of meetings will yield good results and will help in the development of Tricity on a whole.