Beri, Cong workers clean Shri Ram Chowk, criticise AAP for neglect

Alleging that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was neglecting the maintenance of chowks and intersections named after deities, gurus, defence martyrs, and prominent personalities, District Congress Committee (Urban) president Rajinder Beri, along with party workers, took matters into their own hands and cleaned Shri Ram Chowk here.

The chowk falls right at the entrance of the Municipal Corporation, which Beri said that failed in its duty to keep its own facade and periphery cleaned. The DCC (urban) chief brought spades with which he cleaned up the fountain area in front of the point where the words 'Shri Ram Chowk' have been written.

The fountain area of the chowk had filthy water, covered with dry leaves and muck. Beri first cleaned up the floating leaves, cleaned the fountain area and put in clean water. Workers from the party joined him in the cleanliness drive. Beri had gone live of Facebook while cleaning up the site.

Beri said, "There is no point installing new structures in the chowks when the existing chowks especially this one named after Shri Ram are lying in utter neglect." The former MLA of Jalandhar Central said that a day ago, he had reminded the AAP government of its duty to clean-up the site. "I waited for them till 5.00 pm to clean it on their own. But when they did not turn up, I started to it cleaning it up myself", he said.

Beri reminded the AAP leaders and MC officials of their duty to regularly clean up the chowks bearing the statues of Bhagat Singh, Dr BR Ambedkar, martyred soldiers and ex-CM Beant Singh. "These statues are gathering dust every day. So, these pious places must be cleaned up after every few days", he said.