Mayor, councillors miffed over being ignored in car rally

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 17

Angered over being ‘ignored’ for a car rally being taken out this morning to mark the Swachh Bharat campaign, the Congress Mayor from Kapurthala and councillors today gheraoed Municipal Commissioner Anupam Kler for hours.

Congress leaders, along with the councillors, protested outside the Municipal Commissioner’s office for about two and a half hours, alleging that the administration was ignoring the Congress majority in the MC House for such an important event.

The dharna ended late in the afternoon after a formal assurance on the issue by MC Commissioner Anupam Kler to the protesters.

Notably, the MC House in Kapurthala has Congress councillors in majority. The Mayor as well as 47 out of 50 councillors in the MC are from the Congress. The remaining councillors are Akalis. The Kapurthala MC House has no councillor from the AAP or BJP.

A car rally to mark the Swachh Bharat campaign was to be organised at 9 am today by the Municipal Corporation from Shalimar Bagh to DC Chowk in Kapurthala. But the Mayor, Congress councillors and leaders protested against not being invited to the event. They surrounded the office of the Municipal Commissioner and created a ruckus outside, raising slogans against the administration and government.

Congress district unit (Urban) president Deepak Salwan, who lead the protest, said: “Despite being in majority, we were ignored for the rally. The Municipal Commissioner said on camera that she had invited NGOs and political parties. However, it was only late on Saturday evening that the Congress Mayor was sent an invite and asked to intimate the councillors. Congress MLA Rana Gurjit Singh, being the first member of the House, was also not invited.”

Salwan also alleged that water pumps installed during the tenure of the Congress had not started working yet and many other development works were being ignored. Due to this, people of the city were not getting a proper supply of drinking water.

MC Commissioner Anupam Kler said: “This is just a political issue being raked up as no invitations were sent to anyone. Only one invite was sent - to the Mayor and councillors. These are routine issues decided on the spur of the moment. The decision for the rally was taken just a day ago. As far as development works are concerned, they are being carried out as per due process.”

#Bharat #Congress #Kapurthala