In his first media interaction, two weeks after he assumed charge on February 7, Chandigarh adviser Rajeev Verma said that he will ensure that officers are available in their offices during regular public meeting hours so that the public is not harassed.

Speaking to select media persons, he said, “We are trying to fix public hours for the people, especially the departments that deal with the public. They would sit in their respective offices during the public meeting hours to resolve their issues.”

The adviser said that he had seen the presentation of all departments over the last two weeks. “Chandigarh is a planned city and officers are already doing a good job. However, I want to streamline things further,” he said.

While talking about the ever-growing problem of parking in residential as well as commercial areas of the city, he said it was his top priority and he would leave no stone unturned to resolve the issue. Verma said, “During the presentation, I found that Chandigarh has the highest density of vehicles in India and parking has been a major issue. The UT administration is already working on a metro project in the city, but we want to come to some solution regarding parking in the city soon.”

As far as parking in residential areas is concerned, vehicles are parked on pavements, roadsides, and parks outside houses causing congestion on roads and inconvenience to people. Residents are inconvenienced as sometimes vehicles are parked in front of the gates of their houses and they are unable to drive their cars.

After years of deliberations, the administration had notified a parking policy in December 2020, but failed to implement it successfully. The administration then decided to revise the policy to make it more effective. He said, “We will have some sort of coordination with the states of Punjab and Haryana to streamline different issues pertaining to both Mohali and Panchkula.”

Verma said that he would also focus on taking advantage of information technology in the ease of doing departmental works.

On the startup policy, Nitin Yadav, the UT home secretary, who was also present, said, “It is almost finalised and we are hopeful of framing the policy soon.”