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CLU row: Councillor, Ludhiana mayor attempt to woo shopkeepers
While the mayor asked shopkeepers to reap benefits of the change of land use scheme being offered by the civic body, Gogi met municipal commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal with a delegation of shopkeepers and demanded that officials stop the sealing drive at Ghumar Mandi
Amid the row over change of land use notices being served by the municipal corporation to shopkeepers in the city, a battle of one upmanship was witnessed between Gurpreet Gogi, Congress councillor from ward number 76, and mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu, to gain political mileage.
While the mayor asked shopkeepers to reap benefits of the change of land use scheme being offered by the civic body, Gogi met municipal commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal with a delegation of shopkeepers and demanded that officials stop the sealing drive at Ghumar Mandi.
Gogi said that his ward was being targeted deliberately due to political agenda.
He said that few days ago, shopkeepers at Ghumar Mandi received notices in which the civic body had asked them to submit CLU charges within three days, failing which their establishments will be sealed.
This led to a protest which further intensified when the MC sealed a few shops.
“There is a hidden agenda to target my area and dent my reputation. Ward number 76 has been chosen deliberately to harass me and the shopkeepers. But, we will continue fighting against this draconian step of the mayor,” said Gogi.
While condemning the move of sealing of shops in Ghumar Mandi, he said that two notifications were issued by local bodies department in 1995 and 2006 respectively, pertaining to CLU charges being levied on shopkeepers with establishments in eight scheduled road of the city. The charges were nominal but there was no follow-up recover the amount.
“All these years, the civic body was sleeping. Today, they are forcing shopkeepers to submit the fees of change of land use. One can understand that this is a desperate attempt by the civil body to fill its coffer, but harassing shopkeepers is not justified,” said Gogi.
On the other hand, mayor Sandhu said that shopkeepers had protested initially as they did not understand the scheme.
“But now, when the shopkeepers came to know about its benefits, many have submitted cheques for regularisation or change of land use for their shops,” he said.
