At the MC House meet on Friday. (Express photo by Sahil Walia)
BJP Councillors and officials of the Municipal Corporation were engaged in a heated argument in the general House meeting on Friday.
In a face-off between Superintending Engineer Sanjay Arora and BJP Councillor Shakti Devshali, the former went on to say that the “executive engineer told him that as per the contractor, the councillor was ‘pressuring’ him not to go down beyond the specified rates”. Arora said this in connection with the digging of a tubewell in Colony 4 after Devshali asked why there was a delay in the job.
Devshali got angry and told Arora that he was levelling false allegations and asked him to produce the contractor before everybody in the House. Devshali had asked as to why there was a delay in sinking the tubewell but the SE said that they had issues in allotment. When Devshali raised his voice, the SE retorted, levelling allegations.
In yet another face-off between Commissioner K K Yadav and BJP Councillor Satish Kainth, Yadav had to mention before the House that “he felt agitated as the councillor was trying to indicate that there were malafide intentions on his part on the issue of floating tenders for toilets”.
Kainth raised questions as to why defaulter companies, which owed dues worth crores, were not being blacklisted. He raised the issue pertaining to discrepancies in the terms and conditions of the tenders floated for the maintenance of 307 public toilets.
Commissioner Yadav, however, said the issue had been going on since long and he would bring up the RFP (Request for Proposal) at the next general House meeting. Yadav added that the matter was in court and he did not want to make any further comment on it.
Drive okayed
The general House, meanwhile, approved that a drive to catch stray cattle at night be carried out.
The councillors stated that it was at night that the cattle was left to stray in Chandigarh and thus a drive be carried out at night too.
Highlights
The councillors approved that Shivalik Gardens in Manimajra be named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
The House suggested that estimates for development of the cremation ground in Industrial Area be prepared all over again at a cost of Rs 2 crore. The councillors were of the view that people use the Manimajra cremation ground more and estimates be revised because not many prefer the Industrial Area cremation ground
Councillor Devinder Singh Babla had a heated exchange with BJP Councillor Chanderwati Shukla when she asked why he addressed people of UP and Bihar as “Bhaiyyas”. Babla, however, said that he used the word in respect. Babla was speaking about the subject of imposing tax on people in villages.