Lok Sabha elections: Ludhiana MC submits list to district official, claims 566 works in progress

Tribune News Service

Harshraj Singh

Ludhiana, March 19

Following the directions given by the District Election Officer to departments to provide a certified list detailing the status of ongoing development projects and those not yet initiated, the Municipal Corporation and Ludhiana Improvement Trust have submitted their respective lists detailing the status of various projects worth crores of rupees. The district official had directed the departments to furnish such a list within 72 hours of the model code of conduct coming into effect for the upcoming Lok Sabha poll.

Demand for cross-verification

Raising questions, a member of the Vigilant Citizens’ Forum, Kuldeep Singh Khaira, has demanded a cross-verification of the status of project works. In view of the enforcement of the poll code, there is a dire need to conduct cross-verification to check the status of various projects shown on the lists of the MC and the LIT.

Now, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has submitted a list of 566 project works, including the construction of roads, installation of interlocking tiles, installation of water tubewells, purchase of machinery, desilting of sewer lines, which have been shown under the status of “work in progress”. Besides the list of works in progress, the MC has also submitted another list of 31 works that have not started on the ground.

While a few projects have been labelled as “work in progress”, these have not yet commenced on the ground. For instance, the MC has claimed that the work was in progress for the construction of Lodhi Club Road from Ferozepur Road to the underpass, estimated at a cost of Rs 1.17 crore. However, a resident of BRS Nagar said the work to fill potholes was conducted on Lodhi Club Road recently but no road construction activity was visible there. While the construction of Karnail Singh Nagar’s Main Road (in ward 70) has also been categorised as “work in progress” on the list, a Congress leader said the ground-level work was yet to commence. An official of the MC said work orders of these road projects had already been issued to the contractors concerned.

Besides, the Ludhiana Improvement Trust has submitted a list of around 20 works “under progress” to the District Election Officer. However, the majority of these have been shown to have started on March 15, just a day before the imposition of the model code of conduct, which came into effect on March 16. The physical progress of these works is shown between 5 per cent to 22 per cent.

According to the LIT’s list, the project to install 500 LED Lights in various wards of the Ludhiana West constituency started on March 15 and its physical progress has been shown as 22 per cent on the list. The physical progress of the project for the beautification of the 100-ft-wide road in SBS Nagar has been shown as 10 per cent. The LIT claimed that 8 per cent physical progress of construction of roads/streets of Begoana and Ishar Singh Nagar was done, which also began on March 15.

However, the LIT’s executive engineer concerned could not be contacted for his comments.

Raising questions, a member of the Vigilant Citizens’ Forum, Kuldeep Singh Khaira, has demanded a cross-verification of the status of project works. In view of the enforcement of the poll code, there is a dire need to conduct cross-verification to check the status of various projects shown on the lists of the MC and the LIT. Meanwhile, BJP leaders Inder Aggarwal and Parminder Mehta also demanded cross-verification of the status of projects. Mehta expressed doubts about the status shown of some of the projects on the lists.

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