Ravi Dhaliwal
Dinanagar (Gurdaspur), May 7
Four-time Congress MLA Aruna Chaudhary was flummoxed when she learnt AAP halqa incharge Shamsher Singh had inaugurated a road project that she had brought to her Assembly seat with funds from the Punjab Nirman Programme.
Flouting norms
AAP halqa incharge Shamsher Singh is flouting democratic norms with connivance of local officials. He is persona non grata Aruna Chaudhary, Dinanagar MLA
On Friday morning, she had visited the site to supervise things. In the afternoon, her rival arrived with a handful of officials in tow and cut the hurriedly arranged ribbon, leaving the legislator high and dry. A few mediapersons were also called in for the “ceremony” just to ensure Shamsher got adequate coverage in the local press.
Funds to construct the 1.2 km stretch of link road leading to the Paniyar sugar mill from Rasulpur Gharotian village were managed by Chaudhary from the Charanjit Singh Channi dispensation. All requisite formalities, right from the sanctioning of estimate to allotment of work to the contractor were handled by the MLA. She claimed to have brought in Rs 50 lakh funds from the Punjab Nirman Programme. The project was to be executed by the Punjab Mandi Board. “It was a case where the sitting Congress MLA proposed and the AAP halqa incharge disposed,” said a senior officer.
Chaudhary questioned the locus standi of the halqa incharge, who incidentally had lost the Assembly polls to her. “He is flouting all democratic norms with the connivance of local officials. What he has done is completely unethical. Moreover, I fail to understand why officials reached the site when Shamsher is, politically speaking, a persona non grata,” she said. CLP leader Partap Singh Bajwa had recently claimed despite the fact that he was a sitting MLA, officials were not attending meetings being convened by him from time to time.
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