18 months on, F&CC short of 2 members

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 16

Even as more than one and a half years have passed since the formation of the MC House, two councillors are yet to be nominated as members for its Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC). The Opposition leader in the MC House claimed to have raised the matter before Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu and urged him to nominate two councillors to the panel at the earliest.

Sandhu, Senior Deputy Mayor Sham Sundar Malhotra, Deputy Mayor Sarabjit Kaur and MC Commissioner KP Brar are the present members of the panel. The Congress has a majority in the sixth MC House that was formed in March 2018.

When the SAD-BJP was in majority in last House, Congress councillors used to raise the demand for nomination of two councillors as the panel members. Now, the SAD-BJP councillors, who are in Opposition this time, are raising the same demand.

Leader of the Opposition Harbhajan Singh Dang said: “Two councillors have not been included as members of the Finance and Contract Committee. I have raised this matter with the Mayor. When the SAD-BJP was in majority during last House, a Congress councillor was included in the F&CC. Now, an Akali councillor should also be included in the panel. I will raise the matter once again before the Mayor at the next meeting.”

The F&CC is a key committee of the civic body that takes all important decisions related to awarding of contracts, expenditure and others. Several meetings of the sixth MC House have taken place so far.

A former BJP councillor, Inder Aggarwal, said: “The Mayor, Commissioner, Senior Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Mayor are already members. Besides, two councillors can be included in the F&CC. But no councillor has been nominated to the panel so far. At least one Opposition councillor must be included in the panel to keep a check on F&CC proceedings.”