Fissures in Congress come to the fore during House meet

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 17

In the last three years, Mayor Jagdish Raja from the Congress has not just faced flak from the Opposition, but also from his own councillors who protested against him multiple times over incomplete development works in their wards.

During the House meet today, the friction within the Congress came to the fore once again. On November 6, the MC General House meet went on for more than 4 hours, and today, the meeting ended in less than 20 minutes at Red Cross Bhawan. The agendas were passed within 15 minutes without facing any opposition.

However, as soon as Mayor Jagdish Raja and MC Commissioner Karnesh Sharma got up from their seats, it did not go down well with councillors. Senior Congress councillor Des Raj Jassal opposed the move and said what was the entire ‘Taam Jhaam’ for?

Jassal said if the motive was to pass only agenda and there was nothing new to discuss, then what was the need to hold the meet. No answers were given to questions, which were raised in the last meeting. “The agenda could have been passed in the last meeting,” said Jassal adding that it was the Congress’s ‘Nalayaki’ that the Mayor failed to pass the agenda on November 6 and had to conduct another meeting just to do the same.

He said when every councillor was present in the last meeting, why the agenda was not passed then?

Majority of councillors showed dissatisfaction and those from the Congress and the Opposition asked what happened to the issues raised by them earlier.

Jassal went on to say that all the expenses should be paid by the Mayor from his own pocket. He said he had been meeting Raja over the issues related to his ward for the last one year, but nothing has happened on the ground.

A late message related to the House meet further irked the councillors. The notice of holding the General House meet was sent yesterday evening, which councillors said should be sent 72 hours before the meeting.

Sushil Kumar, Leader of Opposition, said everyone has prior engagements. “Why do they expect us to be readily available? Proper intimation is a must,” he said.

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