8 proposals passed amid chaos at MC House meet

All eight proposals, including the much-debated Integrated Solid Waste Management Project, was passed amid chaos during the General House meeting of the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation on Monday. The session, held at Guru Nanak Dev Bhawan, was marked by uproar and repeated disruptions as councillors from the Congress, AAP and BJP clashed over the agenda.

Despite the chaos, the House eventually cleared routine administrative matters such as clerk transfers, appointments of eight new firemen and the creation of additional supervisor posts. However, the spotlight remained firmly on the solid waste management proposal, which drew sharp protests from opposition parties and sanitation worker unions.

The meeting began with an uproar as Congress councillors protested against an FIR lodged against their colleague Gaurav Bhatti. Bhatti arrived dramatically wearing handcuffs and carrying a box of ‘laddoos’, sparking loud sloganeering and challenges to arrest him. AAP councillors, including Ashwani Sharma and Amarjit Singh, criticised Bhatti’s actions, leading to heated exchanges between the two parties, to which the security intervened to pacify them.

The Mayor and Commissioner started the meeting. As soon as the MC secretary began reading out the agenda, the Opposition demanded that zero hour be taken up first. The Mayor, however, stated that zero hour would be allowed only after the agenda was read.

Later, former Senior Deputy Mayor and leader of opposition Sham Sunder Malhotra, along with BJP leader in the House Poonam Ratra, opposed the solid waste management project. They demanded that the proposal be kept pending, alleging that it contained several flaws that could lead to irregularities. While the Opposition continued its protest, the Mayor raised her hand and declared the agenda passed.

The Opposition kept objecting, but the Mayor said that the agenda had been passed on the basis of voting, adding that a majority of the councillors had raised their hands in support of the proposals.

Opposition councillors alleged irregularities in the proposed project and warned that it would eliminate jobs of sanitation workers. They pointed out that the cost of waste processing had allegedly jumped from Rs 925 per tonne to Rs 3,300 per tonne.

BJP councillor Ruchi Gulati joined the protest by distributing toffees, while BJP leader in the House Poonam Ratra demanded the scrapping of the project, insisting that people’s livelihoods must not be destroyed.

Meanwhile, sanitation workers reached outside the meeting venue with their carts protesting against the solid waste management project and argued that they already were managing door-to-door collection and feared losing their jobs if private firms took over. They have vowed to intensify their agitation.

“We have been doing this work for decades and have been demanding regularisation, but instead of giving us job security, the corporation is giving the work to private hands. We won’t allow this to happen,” said a protesting sanitation worker.

This is not the first time the issue has sparked unrest. In a House meeting held earlier, sanitation workers had locked councillors, Mayor and legislators inside the Ambedkar Bhawan in protest.

Mayor Inderjit Kaur said that all proposals included in today’s agenda had been passed. Talking about opposition to the waste management project, the Mayor said that the sanitation workers had been made to understand that there was no threat to their jobs.

When asked about the protests, she responded, “This is the work of the Opposition and they are bound to do that. What to say,” she remarked.