House meet: Cong walks out, BJP councillors grill own party mayor
With Congress councillors walking out of the MC House meeting on Friday, mayor Arun sood would have hoped for an easy day. However, his own party colleagues from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decided to grill him on lack of development work to make for an interesting session of repartees. Most councillors complained that even though work in their area was approved more than two years ago, execution was missing.
With Congress councillors walking out of the MC House meeting on Friday, mayor Arun sood would have hoped for an easy day. However, his own party colleagues from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decided to grill him on lack of development work to make for an interesting session of repartees. Most councillors complained that even though work in their area was approved more than two years ago, execution was missing.
Former Congress mayor Raj Bala Malik (now in BJP), who is a councillor of Sectors 9,10 and 11, slammed the public health wing department for ill-maintenance of public toilets in her ward.
“The toilets are never clean and officials do not bother to clean them,” she claimed.
To this, the mayor flashed a smile and tried to pacify her, “Your work will be done,” he said. An angry Malik retorted, “This is not a matter to be laughed at. We should be crying.”
BJP councillor Heera Negi who looks after Sectors 32 and 46 sought a date from the mayor on which pending work on the parks in her ward would be done. “Please give me a date on which parks and toilets in my ward will be set right,” she asked the mayor.
BJP Rajinder Kaur Rattu who has been elected from Mauli Jagran complained of poor sanitation and shortage of sweepers.
The mayor finally responded, “It will be better if you can give your wish list to the officers so that they can work accordingly.”
Another BJP councillor Desh Raj Gupta (Manimajra) raised the issue of construction of marriage palace in his ward. “It is strange that the construction of a marriage palace was proposed three years ago. To date, nothing has moved. Residents are harassed.”
Nominated councillor slams poor revenue generation
Nominated councillor MP Kohli said that in spite of repeatedly placing the agenda for allotment of its booths in the House meeting, the Chandigarh MC has failed to frame a policy to dispose 112 boots in Mauli Jagran and 40 under the overbridge in Sector 17.
“Over 300 MC booths are lying vacant in the city for the past decade leading to a loss of around `7 crore to the civic body,” he said, adding that many shops at Badheri and Buterla villages had been vacant for the past decade.