MC staff union offices lose power connection over unpaid dues

Ludhiana: The MC on Friday snapped the power connections given to the offices of 14 employee unions of various civic departments, owing to non-payment of rent and electricity bill.
A few days ago, the civic body had served notices to the heads of these unions for clearing their dues and getting sub-meters for power connection. As per the officials, the unions owe over Rs 1 crore to the civic body.
Mayor Balkar Sandhu said at the time these unions were allotted offices, there was no provision of charging rent, but later the same was applicable along with electricity bill.
Moreover, during a recent inspection, zonal commissioner (zone A) Manjit Singh Cheema had ordered the unions to pay rent and power bills to the MC. However, the union members failed to do so, resulting in the severing of the power connections.
Sources revealed that prior to the zonal commissioner’s intervention, civic officials didn’t dare seek dues from the union members.
An MC official claimed that these union members have been enjoying the facilities without paying for them and in almost all their offices air conditions are installed. He said MC has no funds for the development works or paying salary to the employees, but electricity bills are to be paid at any cost, so it was necessary to take action against these unions.
Confirming the development, executive engineer of MC’s light branch, Balwinder Singh, said, “We had given time to the unions for clearing their dues, but when they did not act on the direction we had punish them. So, their electricity connections were snapped on Friday.”
Meanwhile, the MC employee unions have started showing resentment against the move. A group of members from four employee unions also met the mayor to discuss the issue. The argued that offices have been allotted to employee union across Punjab and none of them is paying rent or electricity bill to their respective MCs. The mayor has asked the officials to take legal opinion on the matter and restore the electricity connections till further decision is taken.