The Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju has convened a meeting of UT senior officials on Friday in Chandigarh. The MoS will review the functioning of UT Administration during his first-ever visit here. Sources said that the issues like making Chandigarh a smart city, UT Master Plan, implementation of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (MSMED), revival of Chief Commissioner post, heritage preservation and issues pertaining to traders, employees and industrialists are likely to be taken up during the meeting.
Under Union Government’s ambitious proposal to develop 100 smart cities in the country, the MoS is likely to review the prospects of developing Chandigarh as a smart city. Notably, the Centre has proposed smart cities as a way to push economic growth and reduce the pressure on the nation's existing cities which have inadequate infrastructure to manage rapid influx of people from villages.
As the Union Ministry will notify the Chandigarh Master Plan—Vision 2031 by October 31, the Minister is likely to review the finalization of Master Plan. Among other issues, the Minister may also take up issues of heritage preservation and MSMED Act in Chandigarh.
The MHA had recently directed the UT Administration to implement the MSMED Act and had also asked the UT to ensure that private properties do not get affected by the ongoing exercise of listing heritage buildings or structures in Chandigarh.
The issues of employees of the Administration, Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh Housing Board and CITCO who have been agitating since long over their demands, like an employees’ housing scheme, regularisation of services among others are likely to be discussed during the meeting with MoS. While the meeting has been convened to review the functioning of UT Administration, the issue of revival of Chief Commissioner post is also likely to be discussed.
The Centre is contemplating restoring the post of Chief Commissioner to bring the city under its direct control. Chandigarh BJP and several organisations have time and again demanded revival of the Chief Commissioner post in the city.
Since the inception of Chandigarh as union territory, Chief Commissioner was the Administrator of Chandigarh. However in the year 1984 after notification dated May 30, 1984, the post of Administrator was snatched and given to Arjun Singh, the then Governor of Punjab and the Chief Commissioner who was in fact the Administrator of Chandigarh was re-designated as Adviser to the Administrator.
A senior official of the UT Administration said that the MoS will convene the meeting on August 22 to review various ongoing works and projects of the Administration and discuss proposal of smart city. The official said that the Administration would also raise their pending demands with MoS. The city MP Kirron alongwith senior BJP leaders will also meet MoS to put forth their demands related to Chandigarh.