All parties open front against MCB

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 6

It must have been a rare situation wherein the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party came together on a platform.

It was during the general house meeting of the Municipal Corporation Bathinda when councillors of all three parties got together to protest against the Mayor and MCB.

The meeting, which is to be convened every month, was convened today after a gap of four months.

At the very outset, the councillors raised the issues of lack of sanitation, water and sewerage facilities and bad condition of roads in their wards.

Opening a front against Triveni company for not functioning properly, the councillors got up from their seats and sat on the floor.

They began raising slogans as a mark of their protest. They alleged that the Triveni company had adopted a lackadaisical attitude towards the problems of the residents of the city.

They accused the company officials of taking too long to address their problems.

Adding the protest, senior deputy mayor Tarsem Goyal, deputy mayor Gurinderpal Kaur Mangat and former mayor Baljit Singh Birbehman also sat on the floor joining other councillors.

They demanded that either the contract of the company be announced null and void or stop the release of funds to the company till the time it doesn’t complete the works that it has already undertaken.

The councillors also held the officials of the Water Supply, Sewerage and Sanitation Department for the poor basic facilities in a majority of residential areas of the city.

They added that they were at receiving end as the residents of their wards approached them for the problems but they couldn’t get the officials of the company to work and address the issues.

Commissioner steps in

Municipal Commissioner Sanyam Aggarwal tried to pacify the protesting councillors by assuring them that till the time the Triveni company doesn’t change its way of functioning, none of its new bills will be cleared by the finance department of the corporation.

He also announced that the MCB would now also ask the company officials to produce utilisation certificates for the funds that have already been released to the company for various developmental works.

Following the assurance by the Commissioner, the councillors called off their stir.

The Commissioner, however, turned down the demand of stopping the salaries of officials of the Water Supply and Sewerage Board officials.

After discussions, of the total 39 agenda items, 35 were cleared, two were rejected and two were kept pending.

Triveni, JITF officials absent

Anticipating that they would have to face the ire of the councillors, none of the officials of the Triveni company attended the general house meeting.

Same was the case with the JITF officials as well. Confronting Mayor Balwant Rai Nath and Commissioner over the absence of the company officials, the councillors asked them to seek written clarifications from both companies.

Congress councillor Beant Singh Randhawa claimed that none of the sewerage lines in his areas had been cleaned.

Other councillors also pitched in and added that due to this, the problem of sewerage overflow was resurfacing.

The senior deputy mayor also pulled up the Sewerage Board officials for not being prepared to answer the questions and charges being levelled against them.

Lack of sanitation

The councillors said the JITF and Triveni were functioning in a similar manner. Raising the issue f lack of sanitation in the city, the councillors stated that it was common to see heaps of garbage at various secondary collection points and also in vacant plots across the city.

They added that the JITF’s door-to-door garbage collection was failing on many counts.

Some of the councillors also raised the issue that despite the fact that almost 25 sanitation workers have been assigned for their wards, only three-four come to work.

They added that even the MCB sanitation inspector didn’t have any clarification for their absence.

The Municipal Commissioner assured that 100 per cent attendance of sanitation workers would be ensured soon as the MCB was planning to start biometric attendance for the workers.