Senior dy mayor, dy mayor suspended for misconduct

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 5

For the first time in the history of any Municipal Corporation (MC) of Punjab, a senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor were suspended from a house meeting for their misconduct.

Senior deputy mayor Kamaljit Bhatia and deputy mayor Arvinder Kaur Oberoi were suspended today by Mayor Sunil Jyoti at the general house meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Jalandhar (MCJ). Also, the agenda of over 100 development works was passed in less than 5 seconds.

Stray animal project withdrawn

The tussle began when Mayor Sunil Jyoti, enjoying majority in the house, suspended the stray animal sterilisation project earlier granted to the Stray Dog and Human Welfare Society, an NGO owned by deputy mayor Arvinder kaur Oberoi and her husband Kuldip Oberoi.

Though Jyoti said the project was taken away from the society as it had failed to start it even after a year of the announcement, the couple had to bear the brunt due to their recent act of seeking ticket from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to contest from Jalandhar (Central).

Though some councilors, including Bhatia, Ravi Mahendru, Mandeep Jassal and even some Congress councilors, too, supported the couple, the Mayor refused to grant back the project again to the couple and, instead, announced it to be handed over to animal helpline presently running from the police lines.

At this, deputy mayor Arvinder Oberoi, who had brought invitation cards for the inauguration ceremony of the dog pond to be given to various councilors, lost patience and threw these at the Mayor. The cards fell on the coffee mug, resulting in the spilling of the coffee on the Mayor’s clothes.

Earlier, Kamaljit Bhatia offered bangles to Mayor Sunil Jyoti amidst the full quorum and slammed him for not being able to control the alleged corruption prevalent in the civic body.

Later, the trio was engaged with each other over various issues, following which the Mayor lost his patience and announced the suspension of the two councillors hailing from the alliance ruling partner Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

Though after the suspension, they were allowed to sit in the house meeting, they were not allowed to speak in the house.

The couple became upset at the withdrawal of the project from them and were seen to be continuously in touch with each other over the phone while sitting close to each other. Also, Kuldeep Oberoi was seen pushing Ravi Mahendru, Mandeep Jassal and even Bhatia for support by calling them continuously during the house meeting. Though all of them raked up the issue and demanded from the Mayor that time should be given to the couple, their efforts bore no fruit.

The project was finally awarded to stray animal helpline run by Dr GS Bedi in the police lines.

180 sewermen regularised, additional 300 posts created

Showering another election goodie on the Dalit community in the election season, the BJP-Akali Dal reigning house today regularised 180 sewermen and also announced to fill another 93 vacant posts on DC rates.

Also, it had approved to fill 235 vacant posts of sanitation workers and to create additional 300 posts for them.

Ayurvedic dispensaries to run as usual

The house unanimously refused the proposal to close down five out of the 10 ayurvedic dispensaries running in various locations of the city. The house felt that instead of closing down these due to the shortage of doctors and patients, various other alternative therapy programmes like yoga and meditation should be run in these dispensaries with the support of NGOs.

Building waste cluster to be developed in Phagwara

When councillor Ravi Mahendru informed the house that the MC sanitation workers threw debris on roadside in his ward, Mayor Jyoti informed the house that he was in consultation with a company that had proposed to build a building material cluster near Phagwara. Jyoti said with time, the demand to build more houses was increasing and debris could not be thrown every time on roadside. He said that a building waste cluster is in the pipeline that will help in making the road debris free in future.

To this, Mahendru slammed the Mayor for deploying its own staff to lift debris even though the civic body had allotted tender of Rs 20 lakh to a contractor to lift building debris in the city.

Attendance not marked

Though 31 of the total councillors present marked their attendance, senior deputy mayor Bhatia, deputy mayor Oberoi and all the Congress councillors did not mark their attendance as a mark of protest against the alleged road-sweeping machine scam.

Jyoti said he would seek legal opinion to decide the quantum of punishment for those who, despite attending the house, did not mark their attendance.

Leader of opposition fails to impress the house

Though the leader of opposition Jagdish Raja began with a strong note of voicing his concern that included queries on the redesignation of a corporation employee as a manager of an AMRUT project, granting a project of over Rs 10 lakh without an e-tendering window and raising doubts on the working of the road sweeping project, he was denied answer of all questions by Jyoti who said that since the matter was sub judice, he could not give reply to any question in the general house.

It is pertinent to mention here that Raja, along with senior deputy mayor Bhatia and other councilors, had filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, raising serious doubts over the alleged scam in granting the road sweeping project and to seek stay over it.

Bhatia sang bari barsi khattan gaya si…

Making a mockery of Mayor Jyoti for evading all questions asked by the councillors, senior deputy mayor Bhatia sang ‘Bari barsi Khattan gaya Si.. Khatt ke Liyandi Aari…. Pehle da te jawaab nahi mileya.. te dooje di aa gayi waari’

At this, high tension was created inside the house that was defused in no time and every one burst into a loud laughter.

Falling of Guru Ravidas’ photo creates ruckus

Due to immense rush inside the meeting hall, a picture of Guru Ravidas installed behind mayor Sunil Jyoti’s chair fell on the floor. To this, councillor Mandeep Jassal raised much hue and cry by calling it an intentional move and a sacrilege incident. Other councillors too joined him and demanded an apology from Jyoti.

Jyoti, sensing the situation going out of control, apologised on behalf of every one sitting in the house for the incident.

Mayor given siropa, cigars and bangles

It was fun time for Mayor Sunil Jyoti as he was showered with many gifts by councillors from the ruling alliance party as well as from the opposition. While councillors Balbir Bittu, Balwant Prabhakar, Joginder Tony awarded him with a siropa, councillor RS Jassal offered him a cigar. To the utter surprise of every one, senior deputy mayor Bhatia offered him multi-coloured bangles for his alleged failure to end corruption in the civic body.

Councillor Pawan Kumar’s voice remains unheard

Amidst much hue and cry, councillor Pawan Kumar’s voice remained unheard who wanted the house to approve the insurance amount of sanitation workers raised from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 30 lakh. Speaking later, Kumar said if Rs 30 crore could be utilised to run a sweeping machine for five years, Rs 30 lakh should be granted to the family of a sanitation worker in case of his accidental death.

Other major projects approved by the house

The MCJ is all set to introduce a cloud-based water and sewerage software application system to ensure the online monitoring of water and sewerage utilisation and billing in the city. Under the new software, the billing system, new connection entry and demands generation will be based on the centralised cloud server. The availability of just in time billing and collection system will save time and remove the late reconciliation system. Also, the billing and pending amount information will be SMS integrated with smart chip technology. The same system will be connected via mobile apps.

Environmental clearance for sports hub

The civic body will soon seek environmental clearance under the EIA notification, dated September 4 in 2006, for the construction of a sports stadium in Burlton Park. Though the MC had earlier applied for clearance from the Punjab Pollution Control Board, it was rejected due to some issues raised by the area residents.

68 sites approved for toilets

The civic body also approved 68 sites in the city for the construction of toilets. While 34 sites were shortlisted for the Public toilets, seven sites were identified for the construction of community toilets. Also, at a meeting held earlier, 27 sites were already identified for the construction of public-cum-community toilets.

Roof under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana

Area residents of Indira Colony will get houses under the PMAY as the civic body has identified around 444 beneficiaries for the same. Also, three more areas were identified to develop housing projects under the PMAY. These include around 12 canal pond area in village Ladhewali. Also, a 9-kanal pond area has been identified for the same purpose in Reru village. Another 5-kanal land has been identified in Kurla Kingra.

MC office to go tech-savy

The general house approved the proposal to buy walkie-talkies for its employees worth Rs 13.69 lakh. It also approved to spend Rs 5.82 lakh for the computerisation of various departments. Also, the house approved to make the entire office wi-fi with 4-G connectivity.