Mayor slams Sidhu’s move, says charity begins at home

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 16

Severely criticising the move of the Local Bodies Minister Navjot Sidhu, Mayor Jagdish Raja today said that the minister should have ideally started the demolition drive from his own constituency in Amritsar.

Raja, who had been silent for the last two days owing to his mother’s recent demise, today chose to attack the minister of his own party. “The way Sidhu came lashing in Jalandhar was wrong. He should have at least waited for me to have completed the last rites of my mother before pursuing such action, creating panic in the city and the furore that has it resulted in because of the daily demolition,” said the Mayor.

Raja has also criticised the fact that even the party MLAs had not been taken into confidence. “His action is not a problem but the timing surely is. I also believe that any demolition by the MC must come at an early stage and not when the building is nearly ready as it creates a lot of unrest, besides huge losses,” said the Mayor. 

BJP leader goes live on FB 

BJP leaders, including Amit Taneja and Sheetal Angural, have also criticised the fact that the violators are limited only to Jalandhar Cantonment. They also criticised Rinku for coming to the aid of violators. Angural has also pointed to various illegal colonies flourishing in Jalandhar West constituency that Rinku represents.  He went live on Facebook showing the sites where such colonies are coming up. 

Meanwhile, demolitions continued today for the second day today, it despite being a holiday on account of Eid and Saturday too.

Demolition only in Pargat's constituency

Almost the entire city feels that the MC has had a partisan attitude in the demolition drive being carried out only in Jalandhar Cantonment constituency. Since it is primarily only Pargat Singh who has been supporting the move of Sidhu, it is only he who is allowing the action. The Cheema Chowk area where a showroom was partly demolished and the shops near the bus stand that were razed today come in Jalandhar Cantonment.  "Since everyone knows that I do not promote any illegality, so none of the owners of such buildings are even coming to me to plead their case,” is what Pargat has maintained.

Another reason for the action in cantonment is that the Jalandhar West MLA Sushil Rinku and Jalandhar Central MLA Rajinder Beri had stopped the JCB machines from operating in their constituencies. The issue is now being raised by many including the Mayor himself.