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THERE IS little public support for a proposed study tour by the councillors to Mysuru, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
BJP councillor Saurabh Joshi found this out the quick way when he sought Chandigarh residents’ views on the proposed tour on his Facebook page where he asked his followers if he should join the tour or not. The resounding reply within hours was: “Don’t go.”
The Mayor had asked the councillors to inform him by Monday if they would like to join the study tour tentatively marked for the first week of August. Joshi, in turn, decided to pose the question on social media, posting on Sunday that “if ninety per cent do not want me to go on the tour, I will not go”.
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He received 115 comments from across the city by evening. More than 90 per cent said it was a waste of money, that too by “unqualified councillors”.
“Wastage of public money for their own leisure n fun. If the members have to learn something, learn from your past mistakes. No other city is better than Chandigarh. So it’s pointless n useless to go for a study tour,” was one of the comments.
Calling study tours by councillors who do not have technical information about an issue a waste, a resident said it was a ‘loot’ of the public money.
“These tours are just wastage of time and public money. All the information is available on the net. Even more, all the companies providing such services and machinery are always ready to give live demo in the city itself. In my opinion all such tours by unqualified councillors should be banned,” was another comment.
Joshi said he would honour the opinion voiced by city residents through Facebook. “I will communicate my decision officially on Monday,” he said.
Separately, BJP councillor Satinder Singh too expressed views against the proposed study tour. “It is just a picnic. I am never in favour of study tours. Do you think whatever observations would be made, can they be implemented in two months’ time as after that the code of conduct would be implemented. A study tour at this point of time is totally useless.”
The Mayor had planned to fly councillors to Mysuru to see how it unfailingly topped all surveys on clean cities. City councillors have flown to several destinations in India and abroad in the last 15 years ostensibly to study solid waste management. But the civic body has still been unable to find a proper solution to its solid waste problem.