9 agenda items passed at General House meeting

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 20

The General House meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Bathinda convened on Friday turned into a war of words among the Mayor, councillors and civic body officers.

Asking the MC to pay attention to their demands, some SAD councillors cornered Mayor Balwant Rai Nath. Amidst din, nine items on agenda were passed by the House while three were kept pending.

Councillor Pradeep Gola raised the issue of illegal ramps in front of several shops in his ward. Gola said, “When I complained about the same to SDO Rajinder Kumar, he asked him me submit a written complaint. The department concerned is adopting a pick-and-choose policy in demolishing the illegal constructions. It is also asking a chosen representative to give a written complaint when the illegal ramps are openly visible.”

Several other councillors also complained against the officer. They mounted pressure on the Mayor demanding the suspension of the SDO.

The long-pending issue of parking fee being charged more than the notified, councillors Gursewak Mann and Nirmal Sandhu accused the sub-committee members of not cancelling the parking contract despite “they had caught parking contractors charging more than the approved amount”.

Accusing the sub-committee members of trying to save the parking contractors, the councillors said they had submitted their report with the committee 10 days ago, but no action had been taken against the contractors.

Aiming to pacify the councillors, Mayor acted on the complaint and gave his approval to cancel the contracts of eight parking lots.

The agenda of developmental works in a colony by a private builder also became a bone of contention during the House meeting. Councillors argued that it was a part of the supplementary agenda of the General House meeting which was convened on March 14 as well, but it was kept pending.

As per the rule, an agenda that had been kept pending could not be presented again before six months, but the rule was broken and the agenda had been tabled within a month, the councillors alleged.

The councillors also accused the MC of ignoring important developmental works and trying to get approval for spending Rs 1 crore on constructing roads and other developmental works in the colony. 

“During the last meeting, it was decided that the civic body would constitute a sub-committee to look into the issue of spending money in a private colony. Without forming the committee, the agenda was tabled again,” the councillors argued. 

They made sure that it was kept pending on Friday as well.