Uproar in Zirakpur MC House over Gazipur golf course move

Mohali, April 26

The Zirakpur Municipal Council House meeting yesterday turned out to be a stormy affair with Dera Bassi MLA Kuljit Randhawa, MC president Udayvir Dhillon and councillors sparring over several agenda items.

The issue that generated the maximum heat was a proposal to develop a golf course in Gazipur. While AAP councillors supported the move, SAD councillors opposed it vehemently, saying Zirakpur is cramped, full of middle-class residents, and a golf course is not viable here. Among the rejected resolutions were related to setting up various projects on vacant land in the town.

There was a discussion on setting up a sewage treatment plant on 17 acres in Sanoli village, a proposal to set up a group housing project on 55 acres in the Peer Muchhalla area and establishing a multi-speciality hospital on 54 acres at Dayalpura village.

Responding to Dhillon’s claims that the government was of AAP, which did not accept the resolutions passed by the council, MLA Randhawa said it had been only one year since his government was formed, and before that the government was of the Congress. What works were done for the progress and development of Zirakpur town at that time, he asked.

Questioning Dhillon, MLA Randhawa said in the past one year, the council had been claiming to have spent Rs 117 crore on development works. “Someone should tell me where this money has been spent,” he said.

Dhillon said almost 60 per cent of the budget was spent on salaries of the employees and bills every month.

Randhawa asked the Executive Officer of the MC to submit a report to the internal vigilance wing of the civic body and the Vigilance Bureau of the Punjab Government to investigate the expenditure of Rs 117 crore in the name of development in the last year.

SAD councillor of Ward No. 19 Parvinder Kaur said the tubewell installed in Dashmesh Colony was in bad shape for the past two years and residents of the ward were yearning for water, but neither the head of the council nor officials were concerned about the problem.

MLA Kuljit Randhawa said he had advised all councillors to hold a meeting every month. People elected councillors to do development works and not to pass time by having tea and pakodas in the House, he said.