Councillors spar with civic body official

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 28

High drama was witnessed at the MC General House meeting when the executive engineer, BK Dhawan, responded aggressively to an issue raised by BJP councillor Davesh Moudgil after which several councillors threatened to boycott the meeting.

Controlling the situation immediately, MC Commissioner B Purushartha said he would not allow the Chandigarh MC to be run like the Mohali and Panchkula civic bodies. Later, he apologised to the councillors on behalf of Dhawan. 

The incident took place when BJP councillor Davesh Moudgil said there was a blockage in sewerage in Sector 47. On this, Dhawan said he had visited the area and there was no such problem. When Moudgil demanded that a super suctom machine be sent to his ward, Dhawan reacted to it, saying it was only MC officials to decide where to use the machine or not. 

Moudgil and other councillors objected to Dhawan’s language. As the situation was going out of control, the MC Commissioner intervened. 

He said with such confrontation, nobody would gain anything. “The councillors and MC officials should work as a team,” he said. 

He even advised the councillors and officials never bring aggression in discussion and be polite to each others.

Babla threatens Dhawan

Congress councillor Davinder Babla even threatened Executive Engineer BK Dhawan with dire consequences. He said if it was not the MC House, then he would have seen Dhawan.

Differences between BJP councillors to the fore

When Moudgil and other councillors decided to boycott the meeting and got  up from their seats, several BJP councillors like Arun Sood, Satish Kainth and Gurpreet Dhillon did not respond to it. They were not in favour of the boycott and were pushing for discussion on the issue.