Changing face

Interview with General (retd.) S.F. Rodrigues, Administrator for the Union Territory of Chandigarh and Governor of Punjab.

Chandigarh has Added

GENERAL (retd.) S.F. Rodrigues took over as Administrator for the Union Territory of Chandigarh and Governor of Punjab in November 2004. In this interview, he speaks of his vision for the development of the city. Excerpts:

What have been the changes since you took over?

We have brought the Right to Information here and are only the second Union Territory to do so. We have also added a citizens charter to the essential Act, which spells out the responsibility of each department and what processes to follow to get what you want. There have been a few changes in the past 50 years. The city was conceived as a planned one of about five lakh people. Already it has a population of about 11 lakh and this figure is growing. Another problem is that the city was made by people who did not know what our weather and climactic conditions were like, so people have had to rebuild the homes that were constructed for them. Besides, it was never meant as an industrial hub. It was always meant to be an administrative city, but the way things are changing, we need to create jobs. There will be new rules for building housing and commercial complexes from which no deviations are permitted.

Also, it is important to build partnerships with the people. The administrative environment used to be more aggressive earlier it was the administration versus the rest. It is not like that any longer.

Sampark is our e-governance initiative. Lakhs of people go to the centres every day. E-Jan Sampark is going to the villages.

What are the plans for the city in the near future?

Soon after I asked my bureaucrats, they gave me the first concept paper for Chandigarh. We are working towards a 20-year plan, and based on that we have constituted an advisory council of 43 people.

Some areas require special attention such as slum clearance and the restructuring of building byelaws. We have set up sub-committees to deal with those areas. Slum clearance has been a problem for 40 years now.

How do you intend to go about slum clearance?

We are working on the social engineering model. The profits from building commercially will be put into low-cost housing. Eight times in the past, efforts were made to resettle the slums. But it failed each time because the poor were expected to buy new plots or houses, and they could only do so if they took loans, usually from slumlords. Eventually, these new plots were taken over by the land mafia and the people were back on the streets. Now, we are developing a non-transferable model, with photos and fingerprints of the allottees. We have also figured out how much the slum-dwellers can afford to spend, to enable the resettlement. They gave us a figure of about Rs.800 a month.

We will provide houses of about 300 square feet to 25,000 people. They will be fully equipped with solar power, educational facilities, water harvesting systems, and a community centre.

What are the other projects planned?

At least 27 per cent of those who fly out from IGI [Indira Gandhi International] Airport in Delhi are from this sector. So we are planning an international airport here, which will help to take the pressure off Delhi. We have budgeted Rs.70 crore for it and the plans have been accepted by the Centre.

In all, we have about 170 ongoing projects now. Each has a road map with a time line. Each project will have its independent infrastructure.

One of the major projects is the Rajiv Gandhi Technological Park. It will be spread over 111 acres [an acre is 0.4 hectare]. DHL was the first company to come in with its logistics support services. Then Infosys came in. We did not want to go the Bangalore way, so we decided to develop infrastructure alongside the companies growth. More land was acquired and we plan to set up a habitat centre with a hostel for young professionals, a sports park, a business park and entertainment facilities. The Chandigarh Housing Board will partner us here.

How about the creation of jobs?

We are encouraging the development of business with IT [Information Technology] companies and other environment-friendly, non-polluting industries. This will generate jobs. The first two phases of the technology park are fully subscribed.

We are looking at creating about 67,700 IT-related jobs, and we hope that each IT job will help create two or three non-IT jobs in the process. We have taken a leaf out of Silicon Valleys book here. We have seen that many young people work on wonderful projects in their garages. We want to encourage that, so we have conceptualised the Entrepreneur Development Centre.

Could you elaborate?

There will be a panel of mentors who evaluate projects and you dont need to bring any capital except your own genius. We will work on the projects as a joint venture.

There was 650 acres of industrial area allotted about 50 years ago. It has become all very antediluvian. We want to reconvert it. Some of the land will be used for an integrated township. Over a period, we are looking at partnerships. We are getting shopkeepers to sign MoUs so that they are responsible for maintaining the area they work in.

What about investments in health and education?

We are also building a medi-city. The new centre will take the pressure off the PGI [Post-graduate Institute of Medical Educational Research], so it can focus more on research and referral cases. We will also build a trauma-cum-disaster management centre and a super-speciality hospital with medical tourism facilities. There will be a medical college attached to it and 600 girls will be trained as nurses each year free of cost and this will incentivise the girl child. I hope it will help correct the sex ratio, which has already improved over the past couple of years. We will also invest in a special research centre for sickle cell anaemia and a thalassemia research centre.

The profits from the medi-city will go into a hospital for the poor. We will need a huge influx of trained personnel for all this. So we are putting together an educational city. A panel has been set up to evaluate what we need to teach and six organisations are working together to offer the requisite courses.

What are the plans for higher education?

We are restructuring the university syllabi because it has been noticed that many graduates are not employable. The syllabi need to be reoriented and teaching methods changed to bring our institutions on a par with the best in the field. We have to improve academic-industrial interaction, lay stress on practical knowledge and experience, and develop more rigorous testing standards.

Should it not be at a more basic level?

We are also upgrading the primary schools; 152 schools have been brought up to the model school standard. All have been computerised. There are four smart schools for children whose parents can afford to spend Rs.500 a month and a fifth one is being set up for smart, poor children.

What are the initiatives for the underprivileged?

All public schools were given land on the understanding that they would subsidise the education of a certain percentage of poor students. I sent notices saying that if they did not honour the commitment, their land would be taken away.

We have activated the mid-day meal scheme in each school. Studies found that there was 67 per cent malnourishment and 43 per cent worm infestation in schoolchildren. We place great stress on nutrition. The food is cooked in government-run hotels and taken in hot cases to schools. Even in the alternative centres of learning, where children come after 2 p.m., they are given a snack. All anganwadis [day-care centres] give supplementary nutrition. In schools, we are making everything free, including uniforms and books.

What about children with special needs?

For the special needs, we have commissioned three facilities for children. One is a centre for handicapped children. There will be a research centre too, with facilities for 100 people who have nobody to take care of them. Another is a centre for mentally disadvantaged children and a third is a centre for street children.

What proposals are there for the promotion of arts and culture?

A theme park is being planned for tourism development. We are also putting up a film city with a multimedia university. As for the arts, our museum has been restructured. The Tagore Theatre is being made bigger and is being renovated. There will be the Nehru Centre for performing arts, which has been on hold for years.