Ahluwalia joins office, MLAs stay away

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 9

In the absence of all city MLAs, former DCC chief Daljit Singh Ahluwalia today joined the post of Chairman, Jalandhar Improvement Trust, a day after the government formally announced his name.

Local MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh flew from the National Capital in the midst of the ongoing Parliament session to attend the ceremony and demanded from him that he should prioritise the work related to opening the second entry to the railway station from the Qazi Mandi side.

While MLA Sushil Rinku was said to be away for Amarnath Yatra, other MLAs were stated to be in Chandigarh today. In their absence, Mayor Jagdish Raja, MC councillors and party workers attended his joining.

There was a buzz that Ahluwalia had been told not to delay his joining as there were several in the fray and lest it could be a repeat of 2003. At that time, party leader Raj Kumar Gupta’s name had been announced. He did not join for two-three days and in the meantime, the post got shifted to Tejinder Singh Bittu.

Remembering former Congress JIT chairman Bittu on the day, Ahluwalia said: “He carved out 13 new colonies in his tenure. I have half the tenure but will surely try to put my best. I know that there is too much corruption in the Trust but I do not intend to start knocking out such employees. Such a tactic normally does not work. I will rather identify such people who are diligent workers and assign them important tasks. I will be attending to my office regularly and ensure that the system is in place.” Regarding liabilities to the tune of nearly Rs 225 crore, he said: “We will begin auctioning our sites and start fetching money to end financial liabilities.”