Mayor Raja plays defensive

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 5

Wooing the opposition party councillors and not taking them head-on on corruption issues highlighted by him during the BJP-SAD tenure was what Mayor Jagdish Raj Raja did in the first house meeting chaired by him here on Monday.

When the SAD-BJP alliance led by opposition leader Manjinder Chattha and Paramjit Singh Reru, asked him to order an inquiry into the Rs 14 crore patchwork scam alleged by him as opposition leader, Raja, who throughout played defensive, preferred to stay mum and said, “Let bygones be bygones.”

“The inquiry should have been ordered during that time when I highlighted the issue. There is no point in doing it now when new roads have been laid,” said Raja later speaking to the media.

Unlike the previous Mayor Sunil Jyoti, Raja, however, played diplomatic strokes repeatedly to woo opposition and gave them a patient hearing in the zero hour. When protested by his party councillors for not being given a chance to speak, Raja said he was already aware of their issues, but it should be the opposition first to voice their concerns.

He even put many development projects on hold after these were objected by the opposition party councillors. These majorly included purchasing land for the MSW project at Wariana village, formation of F&CC and town vending committees and also the commercialisation of road from Hotel Kamal palace to district courts.

Opposition locks horns over MSW project

Among the major issues was the purchase of over 8 to 10 acres of land to set up municipal solid waste plant at Wariana. To this, councillors from the west area lodged a huge protest and slammed the Municipal Commissioner’s decision to set up a plant at Wariana.

“Why should the west constituency get all the garbage collected from the entire city? Targeting Congress MLA Pargat Singh, the councillors said when the permission was already granted to set up an MSW plant at Jamsher village, why should the civic body purchase another land and again initiate the process to take permission from multiple agencies which may take another five years?

To this, Mayor kept the proposal in pending and assured that a committee will be formed to look into the matter.

Ruckus over smarttruck purchase

In yet another controversy, the councillors raised questions over the purchase of smart trucks. The house proposed to buy over eight crane trucks and two hook specialised trucks. Each truck was to cost Rs 17 lakh. When asked about their use, Municipal Commissioner Basant Garg explained that these would be required to lift garbage from around 150 dustbins which will be placed under ground.

However, when asked as to how many such dustbins were installed in the city, Dr Garg said these would be placed only after the purchase of these trucks.

‘Need to purchase rickshaws’

The opposition again enquired another proposal to buy over 600 rickshaws. The councillors slammed the earlier SAD-BJP regime and said despite purchasing machinery worth crores, no auction to sell the scrap was ever held by the civic body. However, Dr Garg said the purchase will be made with Rs 22 crore which came under Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and is lying unutilized till date.

Relief to Ladhewaali residents

In a huge respite to people living near the Chauggitti Ladhewaali road, a road over bridge (ROB) was approved today by the general house which will be constructed on the Jalandhar–Pathankot level crossing in the city.

Along with this, the level crossing will be closed with the commissioning of the bridge.

Community toilets to be constructed at 40 places

In yet another step to boost the Swachh Bharat mission, the house today approved to build over 40 community toilets at selected places in the city. These toilets will be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 4.19 crore. The prominent markets include Dilkushan market, under ROB at Rama mandi, Ladowaali road, Plaza Chowk, Peer Bodla Bazaar, Phagwara gate market, Boota Mandi, Model Town Shamshaan Ghat, Khingra gate and Attari Bazaar.

‘Distribute Huggies to North constituency’

On a lighter note, some councillors from the north constituency objected to the less number of toilet blocks proposed for the North constituency compared to other parts in the city. One of the councillors stated that with such a low number of toilets proposed for the area, the civic body will have to distribute ‘Huggies’ (diapers) to the area residents.

House approved Surface Water Project

The house also approved the cities development initiative project in Asia under which surface water from river Beas will be brought in the city for potable purposes. The project at an estimated cost of Rs 2000 crore, was already sanctioned by the Asian Development Bank whICH will fund the entire project.

Commercialisation of Kamal Palace road put on hold

In a blow to the opposition, Mayor Raja put on hold the proposal to commercialise road from hotel Kamal Palace to the Court Complex. Some councillors objected that the commercialisation of this road will increase the traffic congestion further. To this, the Mayor put the proposal on hold and assured to form another committee to study the probability of the proposal.

Mayor puts committees on hold

In an effort to solve the conflict between Congress MLAs to include their people in various committees, Mayor Raja today held up the formation of committees.

These include Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC), Shelter for Urban Homeless and Urban Shelter maintenance Committee and town vending committee. According to sources, a tough fight is going on between Congress MLAs to include their close aides in the F&CC committee responsible for the purchase of materials and award of contracts. Among the top runner is Harsharan Kaur ‘ Happy’, wife of sports promoter Surinder Bhapa, known to be the right hand of Congress MLA Pargat Singh.