Apart from flak, rows, nothing to MC, Improvement Trust's credit

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, December 20

It was a year that the Municipal Corporation (MC), Jalandhar, and the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) will like to forget quickly as the two prime bodies received widespread condemnation and remained mired in controversies.

No new tenders for any work, grave issues surrounding Smart City projects, scams in several development works…the MC hogged the limelight for all the wrong reasons and that too when the civic bodies elections are due next year.

The situation doesn’t augur well for the Congress, which has the majority in the House and will face a stiff challenge to “convince” city residents to vote for it again.

Jalandhar saw four new MC Commissioners this year only, which also impacted the smooth functioning of the civic body. The city got its first commissioner in Karnesh Sharma, who was later replaced by Deepshikha Sharma. Davinder Singh was the third one to join; within four months he got replaced by Abhijeet Kaplish on November 2. While the MC saw frequent bureaucratic reshuffle, the city witnessed further mushrooming of illegal buildings, waste management problems compound, road infrastructure crumble, sewerage system get overburdened.

However, it was the LED scam that put the MC in the eye of the storm. After an uproar over the alleged scam in the project, a committee was formed. The committee in its report stated that the company involved in the LED project was given an ‘extra’ amount of Rs 7.5 crore. Also, not even a single work had been done according to what was mentioned in the agreement, committee members stressed.

The members also questioned Mayor Jagdish Raja. “Why did he (mayor) remain silent over the issue for years?” they said. The matter had then reached the Vigilance Bureau, Punjab.

The JIT, too, has nothing to boast of. The demolition drive in Latifpura was the last thing it would have wanted to hog the limelight for as the year draws to a close. Already the Trust is in the news for not fulfilling its terms and conditions in various housing schemes. Jagtar Singh Sanghera recently took over as Chairman of the Improvement Trust. On joining, Sanghera also admitted, “Visitors to JIT’s office have been through a lot here. Many of them have allegedly faced harassment by the staff.”

Smart City projects in limbo

Be it the bio-mining project, surface water project, or any other, not even one has yet got completed. Apart from this, the allegations of scam worth crores of rupees, involvement of Smart City officials in corruption, and no action by authorities have become major issues ahead of the MC elections next year.

Sordid tale of Kala Sanghian continues

There was no headway in the Rs 45-crore project of beautification of Kala Sanghian under the Smart City Mission. The project entails construction of a boundary wall, separate lane for pedestrians and installation of rides for children. A separate track for cycle is also proposed under the project.

Residents against garbage dump sites

There seems to be no solution in sight to the garbage dumping issue in the city. Model Town and Jalandhar Heights I residents have opened a banner of revolt against the Municipal Corporation over the waste disposal sites. The civic body is struggling to find sites which are not near to protesting localities.