Eye on LS polls, development works pick up pace

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 25

Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, there has been seen a sudden rise in the number of development works in the city.

The laying of new interlocking tiles and other development works are going on in various areas in the city. Everything is being done to just to garner maximum votes during the election in Bathinda.

There are speculations that the city might again witness a contest between SAD leader and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal with her estranged brother-in-law and Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal in the Lok Sabha election.

It is learnt that at present works worth around Rs 5-6 crore are under way in the city. The SAD-ruled Municipal Corporation Bathinda (MCB) and the state government-headed Bathinda Improvement Trust (BIT) and Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) are conducting development works in the city. Later, as political scenes will hot up here in the city, any kind of civic work might come under scrutiny.

Though no formal complaint has been made by the SAD or the Congress regarding these development works that may attract votes, residents do not mind the development.

Work on laying water pipe lines on the court road and Pujanwala Mohalla is going on rapidly these days.

Residents of areas around Quila have been facing the water supply problem for a long time as their houses fall in high-flying areas where it is not possible to supply water through pipes. So, in the beginning of 2018, the administration had planned to construct two water tanks on Court Road and provide water supply to nearby areas from here, but this work has been initiated ahead of the polls.

A thickly populated part of the city, the Quila road area has large numbers of registered voters and this work is the one which will benefit residents of Guru Nanakpura Mohalla, Poojawala Mohalla, Teliawala Mohalla, Bhularia Wala Mohalla, Jhutika Mohalla, mini-secretariat road and other areas, a local leader told Bathinda Tribune.

Mayor Balwant Rai Nath said works worth around Rs 6-7 crore were going on in the city and work orders of these works were released three months back, but the contractor delayed the work. He said not only the MCB, even the Bathinda Improvement Trust and the Bathinda Development Authority have also been carrying out development works in the city.

As for the financial crunch, Nath said earlier they were paying instalment to Triveni, but this time they had not paid the installment so we have the money.

It is pertinent to mention that at the start of the last two years the MCB did not initiate any development work alleging lack of funds and no works were carried out in the city, but now as the polls are approaching, the MCB suddenly received money for works.