Single room for 4 MPs in Jalandhar!

Four MPs lodged in one room. Yes, that's the situation in the District Planning Board office building housed inside the district administrative complex here.

For years, only the Lok Sabha Jalandhar MP had his office inside the building, but now the nameplates of three Rajya Sabha MPs too have been added up. This has clearly annoyed LS Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi, who represents the Congress, which is in the Opposition in the state.

The three RS MPs — Ashok Mittal, Balbir Singh Seechewal and Harbhajan Singh — represent the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Channi has reacted saying, "It makes completely no sense to allot my room to three Rajya Sabha MPs also. I have a room there, being the local Lok Sabha Parliamentarian and, hence, also the Chairperson of District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA), Jalandhar. I chair meetings of DISHA under which the allocation of funds and utilisation of all Centre-funded schemes are discussed with the local administration. The Rajya Sabha MPs have no role in DISHA or planning board works. To my mind, their nameplates have been put up just to disturb me and try to keep a hold of the AAP leadership in that building."

The location of the building of the District Planning Board office is much suitable to all officials. There is a heavy footfall of general public all around it. The office of the Commissioner of Police is situated bang opposite. The Suwidha Kendra, which has hundreds of applicants on a daily basis, is just 20 m apart on its right side. The offices of the Deputy Commissioner, entire administration, SSP Jalandhar Rural and tehsil complex are all within 100 m radius from here.

For the same reason, Channi has visited the office 15-20 times since June last year to hold walk-in meetings with the public. Since most media offices are also located closeby, he prefers holding media interactions here. The Congress Bhawan is also located near the building and it is easy for him to shuttle between his office and bhawan for any workers' event there.

Unlike Channi, previous MPs, including Chaudhary Santokh Singh and Sushil Rinku, who were locally based, preferred working from their places and meeting their constituents there. "A more regular use of the building, perhaps, irked the AAP leaders and, hence, they have added in three more nameplates. To my knowledge, none of the three MPs have so far visited the building," said Manu Birring, an ex-Congress MC councillor and Channi's loyalist.

Amritpal Singh, Chairperson of the District Planning Committee and AAP leader, said, "It is for the first time that Jalandhar has three MPs in the Rajya Sabha. Like Channi, they too need to have an office set-up here and, hence, they too can come here and meet the public. There should be no issue at all with that."