F&CC meets again in a week with 425 proposals on agenda

LUDHIANA: Apprehending a vociferous attack from councilors not only from those belonging to opposition parties but from the ranks of the ruling Congress as well for continuing delay in allocation of funds and execution of development works the elected leaders Mayor and his deputies of the MC now seem to be in a hurry to approve pending proposals from out of MLAs and councillors quota in the city

Updated At : 01:00 PM Sep 10, 2019 IST

Members of the Finance and Contracts Committee of the MC during a meeting in Ludhiana on Monday. Photo: Inderjeet Verma

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, September 9

Apprehending a vociferous attack from councilors, not only from those belonging to opposition parties, but from the ranks of the ruling Congress as well, for continuing delay in allocation of funds and execution of development works, the elected leaders (Mayor and his deputies) of the MC now seem to be in a hurry to approve pending proposals from out of MLA’s and councillors’ quota in the city.

This seems to be the only plausible reason that the Finance and Contracts Committee (F&CC) met once again here today for the second time in a week.

The F&CC meeting began from where it had concluded on September 3, after a marathon discussion for more than four hours and giving its nod to some 210 proposals.

The agenda for today’s meeting could be termed as mother of all agendas with some 425 proposals and deliberations lasting for well more than five hours.

Since all items on the agenda could not be taken up for discussion till 8.30 pm when the meeting was adjourned, it was decided to continue the meeting in the afternoon tomorrow to clear pending items.

Even though officials were tight-lipped, it was learnt that the MC had found the state government sponsored Urban Environment Improvement Programme (UIEP) a handy tool to wriggle out of its poor financial condition.

“Most of the allocation for development works in different wards of the city has been made under funds to be disbursed by the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) to the urban local bodies,” an MC official disclosed.

In order to justify the expenditure under the UIEP, a proposal was sanctioned to combine sweeping of roads with sprinkler system so that flying dust could settle down immediately and did not add to air pollution.

Among other proposals, purchase of machinery and equipment, approval of estimates and tenders, the F&CC also approved recalling bids (through e-auction) for paid parking sites at Feroze Gandhi Market and Sarabha Nagar block-I market at enhanced reserve price of Rs 70 lakh and Rs 4 lakh, respectively.

It was further decided that all parking contractors would be directed to strictly follow the stipulated terms and conditions at paid parking sites, including installation of display boards of parking fee, uniformed parking attendants and issuing parking tickets through e-machines.