Ludhiana: Bad roads, illegal shops in mela hog limelight

Ludhiana: The zero hour, which lasted for almost 5 hours, hovered around pathetic and poor quality roads in the city as almost every councillor raised the issue of broken roads in the respective wards. The mayor also marked an inquiry about two roads after listening to the complaints. Besides this, issue of illegal shops being set up at Daresi Road ahead to Dussehra was raised by Aam Aadmi Party MLA Ashok Prashar, which led to heated arguments among the officials, councilors and MLAs.
Councillors alleged that officials had prepared the estimate of Gill Road, where they mentioned that 50,000 feet stones will be used but in reality, not more than 6,000 feet stones are required at that road. The mayor has marked an inquiry and has also ordered action against the contractor for not completing the work. Similarly, question marks were raised over ATI roads and inquiry has been ordered on that well.
On the other hand, AAP MLA Ashok Prashar Pappi cornered tehbazari officials for not acting over his complaint that illegal shops were set up at both side of Daresi Road. He also alleged that the party which was given the contract for Daresi fair was charging money from people who were given space on road. However, MC secretary Tajinder Panchi shared that he had sent a team to check but he was stopped senior deputy mayor Shyam Sunder Malhotra from taking action. The statement led to a heated arguments among the councillors of all parties, MLAs and officials.
Later, commissioner Shena Aggarwal ordered the officials to issue a notice to Ram Lila organising committee.