Mayor, his senior deputy slug it out at meet

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 25

In a bizarre incident, Mayor Balwant Rai Nath and Senior Deputy Mayor Tarsem Goyal nearly exchanged blows after the mayor verbally abused the latter during the General House meeting of the Bathinda Municipal Corporation (MCB) on Tuesday.

The situation took an ugly turn when the senior deputy mayor started raising points against Triveni Company. He stated that the cleaning of manholes and road gullies was in the scope of the company’s work and the MCB are wasting money by paying Triveni Company as well as getting the work done on its own. He also asked the officials to disclose how much work had been done by the company in three years and how much payment had been made to them till now.

Irked over the same, the mayor got up from his seat and said “The manholes and road gullies in the city were less at the time the contract was signed with the company but with time and expansion of the city, many more have come up due to which it does not come under Triveni Company’s scope of work”.

Replying to this, Goyal started reading the contract signed with the Triveni Company. He said the contract stated that the road gullies and manholes present then, those being constructed and the ones to be constructed in the future would come under the scope of Triveni Company’s work.

The mayor then said “Tu aiwe boli jaana hai, mainu pata mein ki karna hai” (You are speaking unnecessarily, I know what I have to do”.

Further, he said “Eh shaks ik garib nu is kursi te dekh nahi sakda, ehi problem hai ehdi” (This person cannot see a poor man occupying this chair, this is his problem).

Irked over these words, Goyal lashed out at the mayor for calling him “Tu” in the meeting. The senior deputy mayor said he calls Nath “mayor sahib” with respect and the latter had misbehaved with him.

Goyal also raised the points of stray cattle menace and residents getting unclean drinking water.

Seeing the situation go of hands, senior SAD councillors reached the table and tried to pacify both the leaders. However, senior MCB officials sitting alongside the mayor remained mute spectators.

While settling down, Nath again hurled abuses calling Goyal “bewakuf”. He announced that he was boycotting the meeting but was pacified by SAD leaders.