MC meet boycott: Had raised issue earlier too, say officials

JALANDHAR:After officials of various branches of the Municipal Corporation such as operation and maintenance (O&M), building and roads (B&R) and town planning boycotted the General House meeting on Thursday and gave a memorandum to Commissioner Diprava Lakra stating that they felt insulted, they have also forwarded the letter to the Punjab Chief Secretary.

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 19

After officials of various branches of the Municipal Corporation such as operation and maintenance (O&M), building and roads (B&R) and town planning boycotted the General House meeting on Thursday and gave a memorandum to Commissioner Diprava Lakra stating that they felt insulted, they have also forwarded the letter to the Punjab Chief Secretary.

The officials on Friday said they had written about the issue to the Municipal Corporation Commissioner earlier too, but to no avail.

Ashwani Chaudhary, Superintending Engineer, B&R branch, said, “It is not right on the part of councillors to call us thieves. It is unacceptable that we get to listen to such words and are asked questions in such an insulting way.”

Kishor Kumar Bansal, Superintending Engineer, O&M branch, said they wanted to flag their grievance to the Commissioner that it was not right to harass them in the meeting.

Mayor Jagdish Raja said the boycott of the meeting by officials was an insult of the House.

After the officers had left the meeting, the Mayor had alleged that if they were running away from questions, it meant that they were wrong.

He had also said that if needed and if every councillor agreed, they would take up the matter with the CM.

Proposals that got cleared

The Mayor has given approval to the installation of waste-to-compost plants at four sites which had been facing flak but he also said it would be installed after having a word with the respective area’s residents.

The agenda read that there was no centralised waste processing plant because of which 500 tonnes of waste was getting dumped at a single site, Wariana, which was further leading to the mismanagement of waste.

To solve this problem, a proposal for source segregation of waste was put forward. It was mentioned that the project would be helpful in many ways. It would help in curbing diseases if the waste will be processed daily. There would also be no heaps of garbage in the city.

For this project, four locations have been chosen — Burlton Park at North Zone, Urban Estate Phase-II at Jalandhar Cantonment, Rama Mandi area at Central Zone. The location for Jalandhar West Zone is yet to be finalised.

Another proposal was passed in the House for residents of the Shiv Nagar locality for the opening of an alternative route near the railway under bridge (RUB) in Chandan Nagar.

The residents of the Shiv Nagar locality have been facing inconvenience as all the traffic coming from the bridge passes through the locality. Residents said it had led to a rise in accidents.

Other proposals

Approval to the installation of waste-to-compost plants at four sites, which had been facing flak. According to the Mayor, it would be installed after having a word with the respective area's residents.
Opening of an alternative route near the railway under bridge (RUB) in Chandan Nagar for residents of the Shiv Nagar locality.