From courting controversies to starting welfare programmes,Rodrigues did it all

Apart from Educity,however,all the other projects are embroiled in controversy and have been stalled.

Medicity ran into rough weather when the advisor to the Administrator,Pradip Mehra,pointed out that the land for the project was undervalued.

The Administrator’s tussle with the local Congress MP,Pawan Kumar Bansal,was another highlight of his tenure.

During the last two years of General Rodrigues’ tenure,the situation took a turn for the worse with Congress leaders opposing the proposed mega projects. They also demanded that the Administrator be changed. The Administrator broke his silence in October last year and levelled allegations against Bansal for orchestrating an attack against him causing the Ministry of Home Affairs to question the mega projects.

He had also raised questions over the allotment of land to Delhi Public School . Bansal,in turn,had termed Rodrigues a ‘frustrated person’ and the worst disaster for the city in the last five years.

Farmers groups and citizens groups were quite vocal in their demands. The farmers had been raising a hue and cry over the low amount of compensation being given to them for acquisition of land.

A fresh controversy arose when Congress Councillor Devinder Singh Babla accused General Rodrigues of allegedly getting false charges framed against him. The spate of controversies plagued him till the end of his tenure. The Congress had received flak from opposition parties which said that the Administrator had been appointed by the Congress and yet he and the local MP did not get along.

Gen Rodrigues is,however,attributed with starting a number of facilities for the downtrodden — a number of homes,including Ashreya,shelters for beggars,a centre for the mentally challenged and Snehalya for street children to name a few. Gen Rodrigues introduced the concept of public hearing sessions where people from all sections went to him and he,along with his officials,listened to their grievances.