3 BJP councillors quit subcommittees

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 27

After Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria sacked Inder Agarwal, Councillor of Ward No.18, from the advertisement subcommittee of the MC, BJP councillors are up in arms against the Mayor.

Today, Inder Agarwal resigned from the subcommittee on buildings and roads. Another BJP councillor Ramandeep Kaur Kaka from Ward No. 44 resigned from the transport subcommittee and BJP councillor Monica Jaggi from Ward No. 20 quit the streetlight subcommittee.

Parveen Bansal, district president of the BJP, visited Chandigarh and met Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi. Bansal said he apprised the minister of the anti-BJP attitude of Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria.

Bansal said: “We have problems with the Mayor’s attitude. He is creating hurdles in development works being looked after by BJP councillors and humiliating them. We had been tolerating all this as we did not want to highlight such issues which could affect the SAD-BJP alliance. We are concerned about the development of the city, so we wanted implementation of the rules to generate more revenue for the MC. But the Mayor wanted to give benefits to some contractors of advertisement and development works. He always ignored genuine demands of the BJP”.

“I met Anil Joshi, Local Bodies Minister, in Chandigarh today and informed him about all these issues,” he added.

Earlier while submitting his resignation from the building and roads subcommittee, Inder Agarwal said: “Why someone will stay in such committees where no one recognises public issues. I don’t want to be a part of any of the MC committees. Being a councillor, I do not need to be a part of any committee to work in the interest of public”.     

In her resignation letter to the Mayor, Ramandeep Kaur Kaka has stated: “When a ruler starts making others scapegoats for hiding his shortcomings and failures, what is the use of getting such “honour”? I resign from the transport subcommittee of the MC”.      

Councillor Monica Jaggi has stated in her resignation letter that no decision of the street light subcommittee has been implemented after the meeting. We should concentrate on development rather than putting crowns on councillors’ heads.

On April 21, the Mayor removed Inder Agarwal from the advertisement subcommittee. Agarwal alleged that he raised his voice against “advertisement mafia”.