Miffed over protests and delays, Patiala MP takes back grant for SC community centre

PATIALA: Accusing the ruling Congress and the Patiala administration of being biased, city MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi on Tuesday wrote to the state government to return the Rs 12.5 lakh developmental grant he had sanctioned for construction of a community centre for the scheduled caste community in Dhiru Nagar.

Gandhi had given the grant from his MP LAD fund to the Valmiki community over a month ago. However, the work stopped during its initial stage after some locals opposing it, allegedly on the behest of Congress leaders.

Manjit Singh, the president of Valmiki community in Dhiru Nagar, “The local Congress councillor from Ward 36 started opposing the project and later he incited people to raise their voice against it. We requested the PWD executive engineer and other higher authorities to look into the matter but all in vain as the officials were under political pressure.”

“I had written to the PWD executive engineer to return the amount of developmental grant as I would distribute the same for some other purpose otherwise the grant will lapse if the election code of conduct comes into effect. The government is playing petty politics as they did not allow the project to start while a local Congress councillor and workers kept opposing the project after the construction work started in the area.”