Chandigarh councillors across party lines oppose termination of 664 tubewell operators

Rising above party lines, councillors from different political parties opposed the termination of the 664 tubewell operators in the House meeting, saying they should not be rendered jobless.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillor Kanwarjit Singh Rana raised the issue of the tubewell operators whose services were terminated last month. Municipal Commissioner Amit Kumar said a month-long extension had already been granted to the operators till June 20, but a fresh tender would be floated thereafter.

To tide over financial crisis, the Municipal Corporation (MC) had last month decided not to renew the contracts of 664 outsourced workers employed at tubewells across the city.

The civic body operates 130 tubewells and 34 boosters across the city. Their operators also staged a protest outside the civic body office, demanding the continuation of their services.

Rana urged the House that the terminated 664 tubewell operators should be reinstatement as their livelihood was at stake. He threatened to stage protest if they were not reinstated.

Congress councillor Gurpreet Singh Gabi, meanwhile, criticised the civic body for removing tubewell operators. He emphasised that it takes 20 to 25 minutes to start a single tubewell, questioning how one operator could manage three tubewells at once.

He raised concerns about safety, asking what would happen if someone tampered with the water at one site while the operator was away at another. “Who will be responsible in that case — the Mayor or the Corporation officials?” he asked.

Gabi further added that the issue went beyond the tubewell operators and was about providing clean drinking water to 1.4 million residents of the city.

He furhter underlined that these operators are not only vital to the city’s water supply but also have families whose livelihood and safety are at stake.

Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla stated that they would take up the issue with Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria and no one should be sacked.

The Commissioner said that he was forced to register a dissent note keeping in view the current financial condition of the civic body.

A fiery session post lunch

After lunch, discussions turned into heated arguments when Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla brought a proposal to grant temporary water connections to residents outside Lal Dora. Objections were raised from AAP councillors, who stated that the Mayor skipped the order of the agenda. During the discussion on tubewell operators, BJP councillors Kanwarjit Singh Rana and Dilip Sharma got into a heated argument, forcing the Mayor to call a five-minute break. Later, AAP councillor Ramchandra Yadav and BJP councillor Rana got into a verbal dual over the Request for Proposal for community centres.