Ludhiana: After a long gap of almost eight months, the MC general house meeting took place on Tuesday. Though it remained peaceful, on a few issues some councillors came at loggerheads with each other. Also heated arguments were exchanged among Congress councillors Mamta Ashu, Amrit Varsha Rampal and Narinder Sharma over the issue of exchanging land kept for developing public park with some other land. The BJP, SAD and even LIP councillors also raised voice against this agenda in the house.
In the agenda one resolution was kept about a park under possession of Sukhdarsharan Kumar in Gurdev Nagar town planning scheme 2. Kumar has asked the MC to give this park to him and he was ready to give another land of same area to it.
A committee was formed to take decision over this matter. Mamta was made the chairman of this committee. In the meeting Amrit Varsha raised objection to the committee by saying that area councillor was not part of it. This enraged Mamta and she said it was not right to raise a finger at the committee. The councillors from other parties also raised a hue and cry over this resolution and sat on a protest. Mayor Balkar Sandhu had to intervene and he announced to involve the area councillor in the committee.
Recruit JE/SDOs in operation cell
Almost all councillors were united on the issue of recruitment of JEs and SDOs in the operation and maintenance cell. They claimed that the MC had removed the JE and SDO who were hired through outsourcing and now the situation was such that there was not even a single JE in some areas. An agenda was kept in house meeting to recruit JE/ SDOs on contractual basis. The councillors claimed that JE/SDO who were working earlier should be given chance again on the basis of their performance and they should be given salary which they were drawing earlier.
Take action against illegal colonies
In the meeting, Akali Dal councillor Jaspal Singh Giaspura raised the issue of illegal colonies being developed in the past six months. He said he had taken up the matter with building inspector Gurvinder Pal Singh Lucky in zone C, who said he had no information about it. Even ATP Satish Kumar refused to take action against the building inspector by saying that he was powerful.
Giaspura said there are many colonies which were developed recently and they all connected their sewerage to the MC lines , took water connections and also dug up roads for the purpose. Most of the councillors supported Giaspura but Congress councillor Pal Singh Grewal held SAD MLA Sharanjit Singh Dhillon responsible for connecting the sewerage connections of such colonies on Rahon road.
The Commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal sought report about building inspector in two days and also asked the officials to start taking action against illegal colonies.
Official of operation and maintenance cell Ravinder Garg said they had already issued demand notices above Rs 40 crores to Glada over sewerage connections of approved colonies. Also illegal water supply and sewer connections in colonies will be snapped, he said.
Social distancing ignored
Councillors forgot to maintain social distancing while showing resentment against agenda as they gathered near the stage. Also most of them were without masks despite the fact that Mayor had requested themm about the same.