Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh): The Ratlam Development Authority (RDA), set up with much fanfare in 2010, has completely failed to live up to its mandate of developing Ratlam into a thriving city on the lines of Indore and Ujjain.
One of the major reasons for its failure is indifference of the government, which failed to fill crucial posts in the RDA over the years. In the last 15 years, the post of chairman has been filled only twice, and their terms lasted only three years. Additionally, RDA has had only one CEO, and he lasted only three months.
At present, the RDA is limping with three employees on deputation, two outsourced employees and one engineer.
In 2010, Vishnu Tripathi was appointed chairman, and his tenure lasted two years. The post remained vacant for the next 12 years. In 2023, Ashok Porwal was made chairman, but his term lasted only 11 months, and since then, the post has remained vacant. Sanjay Mehta was appointed CEO in the beginning of 2018, but was removed in April of the same year.
People of the city had great expectations that RDA would put an end to the haphazard development of the city, develop new colonies with all necessary civic amenities.
RDA took some initiatives in the first two years and developed four residential colonies: Mahi Vihar (69 plots), Yogi Vihar (67 plots), Ma Kalika Vihar (160 plots) and Parshuram Vihar (296 plots), totalling 492 plots. And then things came to a standstill for 12 years.
In 2023, when Porwal was appointed chairman, RDA launched Scheme No 2 in the Kaneri-Triveni area adjoining the city, and acquired 350 bighas of private land. The plan was to develop a new city with residential and commercial space. The project even received a nod from the Town and Country Planning Department.
Apart from this, in 2022, the then collector, who was also the RDA chairman, conceived a plan for a Transport Nagar. However, due to lack of proper budget, the project that aimed to develop 100 commercial plots is still in limbo.
Recently, due to efforts of local MLA and MSME minister Chaitanya Kashyap, Rs 25 cr loan was sanctioned by HUDCO in February for the project, but the state government’s guarantee for the loan is awaited. Strangely, even after 45 days, RDA has been unable to send the necessary proposal to the state government.
[Story by Rajesh Moonat]
