By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 3 Nov: Dehradun Mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ has written a letter to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressing his displeasure at the quality and pace of the works being done under the Smart City Project.
In his letter, Gama has also demanded an inquiry into the works and also a financial audit. Gama has alleged possible financial irregularities and corruption in the Smart City works.
He has written that, when the Dehradun Smart City Mission, was started, the people of Dehradun were enthusiastic about the new Smart Dehradun city and had hoped for a grand and smarter city, but what has been happening over the last 3 years is just the opposite. Gama claimed that the irresponsible contractors not only pushed the bright future of Smart City Dehradun into darkness but also kept no stone unturned in playing with public sentiments.
The Doon Mayor said that he was forced to write to the CM with a very sad heart that “Smart City Dehradun’ had become a headache for the people. Whether it is the roads dug in the name of smart city in the city or about the pits lying around, breaking the pipelines by doing haphazard work or damaging the sewer lines by working impractically, the city and its residents are suffering. Smart City project contractors have become infamous for doing impractical work.
Praising the strong stand taken by the Chief Minister, earlier, in blacklisting a company working on the Smart City project, Gama said that this action had delivered a very positive message among the public representatives and general public. But the other contractors have not learnt from this and they are still indulging in a series of impractical works. The work on improving drainage in Paltan Bazaar, Parade Ground, Rajpur Road had been started under the Smart City project in November last year, but the problem remains as it was. No progress had been made in the work and so many works undertaken are full of flaws, due to which the anger of the general public is also increasing towards the public representatives.
He appealed to the CM that a financial inquiry be conducted into all the works done so far in the Smart City project so that the corruption could be exposed. He also demanded strict and punitive action against the erring contractors so that the things could be improved.
