Mohali is nearing the fourth anniversary of getting district status, but there is still no development on constructing a district administrative and courts complex (DACC) here. The project is stalled ever since its foundation stone was laid in April 2006, and even the intervention of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has been of no help.

At a meeting in Chandigarh on September 1, the CM had ordered to expedite the construction of DACC in Mohali besides seven other districts.

Badal had asked the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) to immediately undertake the process of finalisation of the site-selection and approval of site plan so that the construction of DACC could be completed at the earliest. CM had also directed the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) to coordinate with PUDA to ensure quality and timely completion of the complex.

But even after over two months, nothing has moved.

Though the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) had in January earmarked a 15-acre site in Sector 76 for DACC, but in the absence of any allocation of funds, the site allotment remains a distant dream.

“The main hitch is allotment of land. While GMADA wants money to allot the earmarked land, the Finance department seems to be in no mood to release the funds that run into crores,” confided a senior officer.

“With the fiscal situation of the state government already in a mess, the CM should have directed GMADA to allot the land free of cost. GMADA is a government authority and DACC is also a government project, hence the inter-departmental agreement to transfer the land is the only option if the Finance department fails to bear the cost,” he added.

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