Mayor threatening me, alleges Panchkula MC Commissioner

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 21

In a startling accusation, Panchkula Municipal Corporation Commissioner Dr Shaleen has accused Panchkula Mayor Upinder Kaur Ahluwalia of threatening him, citing her influence with the Chief Justice of India (CJI).

Taking their verbal spat to the next level, the 2012-batch Haryana cadre IAS officer has shot off a letter to Haryana Chief Secretary Depinder Singh Dhesi, seeking appropriate action against the Congress-supported Mayor.

“In the past also she had been issuing verbal threats to me in the form of vigilance inquiries and also tends to threaten by citing the name of CJI as her relative. To my mind, she is degrading such a high post,” the MC Commissioner has written.

Further accusing the Mayor of vitiating the atmosphere of the Corporation and expressing his inability to work under such circumstances, Dr Shaleen quoted in verbatim the Mayor’s alleged threat, “Mr Commissioner, you don’t know me. You have a long career ahead. I can spoil you and your career. You wait and watch.” This, according to the MC Commissioner, the Mayor told him over his mobile phone on June 19 when he was on an official tour to Faridabad and was not feeling well. “When I told her that I could not attend the House meeting of the Corporation and requested the Mayor for its cancellation, she called me on my mobile and threatened me,” he claimed.

The MC Commissioner further wrote that during this conversation when he told her that she was threatening him, “she got terrified and cut the phone and the conversation ended”.

Dr Shaleen has sought an opportunity for personal representation before the Chief Secretary.

In a separate letter sent to the Mayor, the MC Commissioner has sought an apology from her for such behaviour. “Until you don’t tender an apology, I am of the opinion not to attend any meeting under your chairmanship. This may kindly be considered on a positive note,” the young bureaucrat has written to Ahluwalia.

Dr Shaleen reminded the Mayor that in the past also, she had threatened him with vigilance inquiries and legal notices. “Such threatening behaviour is unprecedented in government system and such unparliamentary language from such a person sitting on a higher post is neither expected nor desirable,” the MC Commissioner told the Mayor.