BJP councillor gets notice for damaging MC property

Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 15

In a first-of-its-kind case, the local Municipal Corporation has served a show-cause notice on BJP councillor Chanderwati Shukla for throwing dirty and muddy water on the ‘costly’ carpet on the floor of the assembly hall at the office of the civic body on October 30.

Sources said in the notice, the Secretary, MC, asked her to reply as to why action should not be initiated against her for causing damage to public property.

In the House meeting last month, Chanderwati Shukla had thrown dirty water collected from houses in her ward on the floor of the meeting hall. Shukla had alleged that despite raising the issue of contaminated water time and again in the House, no action had been taken by the MC authorities. She was furious at the officials concerned for being apathetic towards the problems in her ward and with the act she wanted to invite the attention of the House.

When Shukla threw dirty water on the floor, the MC Commissioner raised an objection to it, saying that nobody had the right to damage public property. Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla supported her cause. He even took the bottle in his hands.

In the show-cause notice, the Secretary wrote: “When a meeting was going on to discuss the agendas, you placed three bottles of muddy water on the dais on which the Mayor and the MC Commissioner were sitting. Thereafter, you threw the muddy water in front of the dais on the carpet of the assembly hall of the Municipal Corporation. However, the hall is a public property and you have no right to damage public property.”

The notice further stated that “you are herby afforded an opportunity of being heard in person or submit a satisfactory reply to the show-cause notice as to why action shall not be initiated against you as per the law on account of the damage to the public property. In case you failed to file the reply within seven days, it will be presumed that you have nothing to say and action shall be taken against you as per the law”.

When contacted, MC Secretary Anil Kumar Garg confirmed that the notice has been served on the councillor. He said further action would be taken only after getting her reply. Though he refused to comment on the action, experts say the MC may recommend a police case for damaging the public property.

On the other hand, some councillors termed the action as result of a tussle between the two warring groups of the BJP in the House — one belonging to the party’s city unit chief Sanjay Tandon and other of MP Kirron Kher.

Chanderwati Shukla had recently switched over to the Tandon camp.