Hillary Victor is a Special Correspondent at Chandigarh. He covers Chandigarh administration, municipal corporation and all political parties.
Articles by Hillary Victor
MC again gets ready for 'study tour' of councillors
Members of Chandigarh municipal corporation seem to have learnt no lesson from the past: despite stinging criticism owing to "futility" of and "waste of huge public funds" on the annual tours of MC members and officials to far-off places to "study" different projects, preparations are on for yet another such tour to Kerela and Tamil Nadu for 7-10 days.
Updated on Mar 15, 2013 09:59 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Charity begins and ends at home for community halls
Charity seems to begin and end at home only with the managements of community halls (bhawans) built in the city. Despite allotment of land to them at high concession by the UT administration, managements of these halls offer discounts ranging from 25 to 50% to people belonging to their own community only.
Updated on Feb 26, 2013 10:38 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Late risers, get used to waking up early this summer
Most city residents would have to wake up well before 5am every morning during the coming summer months to ensure that they and their families are not left “high and dry” for the rest of the day, literally speaking.
Updated on Feb 22, 2013 10:01 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Decks cleared for airport road at a premium of 2.37 cr per acre
With the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) announcing the highest compensation rate in the district so far, at Rs 2.37 crore per acre, to farmers for acquiring 46 acres, decks have been cleared for nearly 3 km of the proposed 8-km airport road, which would stretch the dividing road of Phases 7 and 8 of the Industrial Area in SAS Nagar further to connect with the Kharar National Highway (NH)-21.
Updated on Feb 17, 2013 09:55 AM IST
None | Hillary Victor Hillary Victor, Sas Nagar
MC's snail pace keeps Industrial Area in dark
How long does it take to install streetlights? For the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC), the period is nearly three years and counting. Electricity poles installed on the internal roads of Industrial Area Phase-1 in 2010 are yet to light up despite the civic body clearing 75% of the payments to contractors.
Updated on Feb 08, 2013 10:57 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
For Chawla, charity begins at home
A new storm is brewing in the municipal corporation over distribution of complementary parking stickers, as a proposal is afoot to give mayor Subhash Chawla 50 such stickers apart from his usual quota of five.
Updated on Feb 01, 2013 11:24 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh:
Congress takes U-turn on scrapping of day market project
Directed to pay Rs 22 lakh for scrapping an under-construction day market project at Charan Singh Colony, Mauli Jagran, the ruling Congress councillors have taken a U-turn on the project.
Updated on Jan 17, 2013 11:32 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Municipal corporation fails to contain stray cattle, dog menace
Failing to have a clear policy and adequate facilities in place to control the menace of stray cattle and dogs in the city, the municipal corporation of Chandigarh has come under fire. Hillary Victor reports
Updated on Jan 14, 2013 10:46 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Congress sweeps mayoral polls; Subhash Chawla is new mayor
The Congress on Tuesday swept mayoral elections with its candidate Subhash Chawla being elected as 19th mayor, Rana Kashmiri Devi as senior deputy mayor and Satish Kumar Kainth as deputy mayor.
Updated on Jan 02, 2013 01:07 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
R 12 lakh, 84 hours later, MC house meets come to nought
In the past one year, the municipal corporation has spent around Rs 12 lakh and 84 hours on monthly general house meetings, but has failed to provide any relief to residents. In most of the meetings, the councillors have paid mere lip service on the issues of basic amenities, thereby emptying its coffers futilely.
Updated on Dec 19, 2012 05:31 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Split verdict on Raj Bala Malik's success as city mayor
With city mayor Raj Bala Malik's tenure coming to an end on December 31, Principal Correspondent Hillary Victor analyses her performance. Despite her best intentions, she could not bring about much positive change in the City Beautiful. While some of her initiatives were praised, most of them did not yield any result.
Updated on Dec 17, 2012 10:41 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Mayoral elections: All eyes on nominated councillors, again
With elections to top three posts in Chandigarh municipal corporation round the corner, all eyes are once again on nine nominated and one Independent councillors, who are again set to play vital role in electing the mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor of the civic body.
Updated on Dec 16, 2012 11:09 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
MC fares poorly in its primary tests
If you want to know how serious the civic body is about maintaining schools and dispensaries, which are functioning under it, expenditure statement of the municipal corporation tells a lot. Of Rs10 crore allotted to each department in April, the municipal corporation has only spent Rs 19 lakh on the renovation of one primary school in Manimajra in the past 12 months.
Updated on Dec 10, 2012 12:53 AM IST
Hindustantimes.com | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
MC audit report sans fiscal records
The Chandigarh municipal corporation's audit report for 2011-12, which was submitted on November 27, has shown the functioning of the civic body in poor light. The audit report has been prepared without incorporating the financial records for the said year.
Updated on Dec 03, 2012 01:00 AM IST
None | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Municipal Corporation split work to private firm by Rs 70 lakh more
Accused of "favouring" a private firm, the public health department of municipal corporation even split the nearly 15-km pipeline project in four parts to facilitate an undue profit of additional Rs 70 lakh to the Vadodara company.
Updated on Nov 29, 2012 11:02 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
MC dept 'favours' private company
The public health department of the Chandigarh municipal corporation has allegedly prepared "inflated" detailed notice inviting tenders (DNIT) to favour a private firm to tune of Rs 3 crore for the project of laying of 600-mm mild steel pipe over a distance of nearly 15 km for water supply from Sector-39 waterworks to Chandimandir cantonment in 2008.
Updated on Nov 28, 2012 10:53 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh Chandigarh
From truck driver to Uttarakhand panel chief
From a truck driver in the late 1980s, Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, an under-matriculate, rose to become a member of the management committee of Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar, from 2003-05 and later the chairman of the Uttarakhand minorities commission during the BJP tenure (2007-12) in the state.
Updated on Nov 27, 2012 12:01 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Pistol recovered from Namdhari's house
The Delhi Police on Sunday recovered a licensed 7.62-mm pistol and five cartridges from the residence of Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, alleged conspirator in the Delhi farmhouse shootout, from Bazpur in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. Licence for the same was issued in SAS Nagar, even though he has no house in Punjab's district.
Updated on Nov 26, 2012 06:35 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Sas Nagar
Ponty case: farmhouse was Namdhari's reward?
For close to 20 years, Sukhdev Singh Namdhari helped Gurdeep 'Ponty' Chadha grab properties across states and was rewarded with several of them, sources close to the investigation said Sunday.
Updated on Nov 25, 2012 11:55 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Jatin Anand and Hillary Victor, New Delhi/sas Nagar
Namdhari’s 7.62mm pistol had a Punjab licence
The Delhi Police on Sunday recovered a licensed 7.62 mm pistol and five cartridges from Sukhdev Singh Namdhari’s residence in Udham Singh Nagar’s Bazpur area in Uttarakhand. Namdhari is an alleged conspirator in the Chhatarpur shootout in which liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep were killed. Who is Sukhdev Singh Namdhari
Updated on Nov 26, 2012 06:28 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Sas Nagar (punjab): Sas Nagar (punjab)
Financial crisis faces MC in the face
The UT administration has failed to release the quarterly grants of Rs 36.65 crore under plan head to the Municipal Corporation, hitting the development work in the city severely. The administration was to release the funds in July, but the civic body is waiting for it till date.
Updated on Oct 09, 2012 11:56 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Study tours expense: Rs 90 lakh, result: nil
Penny wise, pound foolish - is that what our municipal corporation is? Over a period of eight years, the councillors spent nearly Rs 90 lakh on study tours, but these remained pleasure trips alone as they failed to yield any results.
Updated on Sep 26, 2012 12:20 AM IST
None | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
MC likely to give in to demand, increase parking fee
Bowing to the pressure of parking contractors, the municipal corporation has proposed to increase the parking fee for four-wheelers to Rs 10 from the existing rate of Rs 5 and two-wheelers Rs 5 from Rs 2. Besides, the MC has also proposed to reduce the bank guarantee of contractors.
Updated on Sep 25, 2012 12:40 AM IST
None | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Water supply crisis set to get acute
The drinking water supply crunch Chandigarh residents are going through at present is all set to aggravate in the coming months as the local Municipal Corporation would supply additional 3 Million Gallons Daily (MGD) to Military Engineers Services (MES) in Chandimandir and 6 MGD to Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) in Panchkula.
Updated on Sep 23, 2012 11:58 PM IST
None | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Probe finds 60% chlorinators in southern sectors defunct
A three-member committee headed by Chandigarh municipal corporation additional commissioner Lalit Siwach has found that nearly 60% of chlorinators installed at tube wells in southern sectors of the city are defunct for the past three years.
Updated on Sep 21, 2012 12:35 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Congress wins Maloya byelection
In a major setback to the BJP, Congress candidate Poonam Sharma on Monday won the municipal corporation by-poll from ward number 7 defeating the BSP candidate, Seema Yadav, by 571 votes. BJP candidate Bindu Rana, the daughter-in-law of the deceased BJP councillor Laxmi Devi, ended up at the third position.
Updated on Sep 18, 2012 11:51 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
MC survey blooper hits BPL families
Strange are the ways of the Chandigarh municipal corporation. Despite having commissioned a survey at a cost of nearly Rs 7.5 lakh to a city-based NGO in 2006 for conducting a count of below poverty line (BPL) families to identify beneficiaries under various social welfare schemes, it is relying on the findings of a 12-year-old survey.
Updated on Sep 16, 2012 10:36 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Contractor surrenders parking lot, adds to MC headache
Already reeling under a loss of about Rs 50 lakh due to non-auction of five parking lots in the past eight months, the MC got more trouble on hand as a contractor surrendered the Empire Store parking lot in Sector 17 last week, around four months before his one-year contract was to end.
Updated on Sep 10, 2012 11:10 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Chlorinators at many tubewells lying defunct; cos refuse to take up job
Residents of several southern sectors in Chandigarh have been consuming unchlorinated water unknowingly for the last three years as a majority of chlorinators installed at tubewells run by the local municipal corporation are lying defunct.
Updated on Sep 03, 2012 10:04 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh
Whiff of scam? XENs float Rs 7-cr tenders against norms
In a case of gross violation of the Departmental Financial Rules (DFR) of the UT administration and misuse of power, two executive engineers of the public health wing floated tenders worth Rs 7 crore under the non-plan head from October 2011 to July 2012. Doubts are being raised now on whether the amount has been actually spent or not.
Updated on Sep 02, 2012 11:59 PM IST
None | Hillary Victor, Chandigarh