Ghaziabad opposition councillors allege ‘stepmotherly’ treatment

The councillors and leaders of the opposition parties on Saturday raked up the issue of a training programme for councillors in Panchkula on March 9, 10 and accused the mayor of discriminating against them. They alleged that they were selected and ready to attend the training, but were denied transport at the last moment by the mayor.

The 100-member Ghaziabad municipal corporation has 57 councillors of the BJP while the rest are from the Congress, Samajwadi Party(SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), part from the independents. The opposition parties alleged that this was the second training in Panchkula, which they were unable to attend due to the “stepmotherly” treatment meted out by the mayor. The training in January was attended only by a batch of 10 BJP councillors, they claimed.

“The names of two councillors from each of the three parties were selected and we were ready to attend the workshop along with four BJP councillors. But we were denied transport at the last moment,” Anand Chaudhary, leader of BSP councillors, said.

The two-day training at Panchkula was to give an insight to councillors on the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, the Swachh Bharat Mission, Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana, and Smart City initiatives of the Central government.

“Several areas in Ghaziabad are still without drinking water and have cleanliness issues. As such, and the training would have been helpful to us. We were denied a second opportunity to get the training — the first time, the mayor sent only 10 BJP councillors. If this treatment of opposition councillors continues, we will protest,” Zakir Ali Saifi, leader of the Congress councillors, said.

Mayor Asha Sharma denied the allegations and said, “There was no promise of transport to anyone. Even during the first training, we arranged our own transport. This time, I ensured that the opposition councillors got proper representation. So, four from the BJP and two each from other three opposition parties were selected. However, they did not turn up at the last moment and I cancelled the entire training programme. No one attended it.”

“It is not the intent of the opposition councillors to learn and help in the development of the city. We are taking up cleanliness, water works and road repair works, but the opposition councillors are only bent on opposing all development works,” she said.