Chaos at Municipal Corporation meeting

Our Correspondent

Phagwara, July 11

As the most controversial multy-storey Parking Complex constructed by the Municipal Corporation (MC) Phagwara at a cost of around Rs 12 crore could not be proved as beneficial for the residents due to the rampant corruption, open violence of the rules between the Congress and SAD-BJP alliance, now the MC, Phagwara, has reviewed the entire projects of MC in Phagwara.

At a general body meeting of the MC, presided over by Mayor Arun Khosla, which was held here today now decided to construct new shops on the ground floor of the complex. The meeting decided to charge Rs 50 lakh as ‘Pagri’ for each shop and rent of Rs 15,000 per month for each shop.

It was also decided at the meeting to increase the charge of an auditorium, which was fixed at Rs 10,000 for each function and to set- up ‘solar projects’. A budget of Rs 3.76 lakh was fixed for sterilisation of stray dogs.

Chaos was witnessed during the meeting, when Congress councillors demanded that the contracts given for street lights be cancelled with immediate effect and the present contractor should be blacklisted.

The Congress councillors, including Sanjeev Bugga, Munish Parbhakar, Ram Paul Uppal, Darshan Lal Dharamshot, Bunty Walia, Jatinder Vermani, Padam Dev Sudhir and Sangeeta Gupta demanded to review the wardwandi for the ensuing elections of the Municipal Corporation.

On the other hand, the SAD-BJP councillors demanded not to change the wardwandi. The Congress MCs demanded that the MC authorities should release the arrears of the salaries of the MC employees with immediate effect.

A total of 45 councillors, out of 50 attended the meeting. MC Commissioner and officials of the Water and Sewerage Board remained absent from the meeting.

When contacted, MC Commissioner, Bakhtawar Singh, told that he was away to Chandigarh to attend an official meeting of the Local Bodies Department.