Ropar civic body gets new chief; MLA Amarjeet Singh Sandoa to move court

Ropar, April 15

The process to elect the Ropar Municipal Council president ran into controversy as local MLA Amarjeet Singh Sandoa called it a “murder of democracy” and said would challenge it in the court. Earlier, Congress councillor Sanjay Verma was elected president, Rajesh Kumar senior vice-president and Poonam Kakkar vice-president.

Drama prevailed since morning as the meeting was scheduled by ADC Deepshikha Sharma at 11 am. While MLA Sandoa and six councillors reached in time, others ‘close to’ Youth Congress president Bridner Dhillon, didn’t arrive till 11.10 am. They asked the ADC to postpone the meeting and left.

A little later, other 14 Congress councillors arrived there, but the ADC postponed the election, saying councillor Inderpal Singh was Covid-19-positive. The local bodies director then asked the ADC to reschedule the meeting at 6 pm. While Sandoa and others failed to reach the venue, the new president was elected in the presence of 14 councillors. Meanwhile, Sanjay Sawhney and Harjeet Singh Jeeta were elected president of Nangal and Anandpur Sahib, respectively, and Surinder Pal Kaura the first chief of Kiratpur Sahib nagar panchayat. —TNS