Bathinda MC: Cong councillors attack party’s mayor for poor upkeep of sewerage system

Protesting councillors flayed the mayor for a delayed meeting to take stock of waterlogging in the city during monsoon. They blamed the mayor for cancelling the General House meeting in June arbitrarily as the House lost time to audit drainage maintenance

BATHINDA: Bathinda municipal corporation (MC) mayor Raman Goyal came under attack from councillors of her Congress party in the General House meeting on Tuesday over for poor upkeep of the sewerage system in the city. Members of the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) also joined the rebel Congress councillors.

Councillors staging a protest during the Bathinda MC meeting on Tuesday. (Sanjeev Kumar/HT)

The Congress has a majority in the 50-member MC House.

Protesting councillors flayed the mayor for a delayed meeting to take stock of waterlogging in the city during monsoon. They blamed the mayor for cancelling the General House meeting in June arbitrarily as the House lost time to audit drainage maintenance.

Bathinda lacks a drainage network and sewage system is used to flush out rainwater from the city.

Before the discussion on the 17-point agenda, a representative of ward number 39 Pushpa Rani raised the issue of poor maintenance of drains.

Other Congress councillors Jasveer Singh Jassa and Beant Singh Randhawa blamed the corporation authorities for undertaking the de-silting of drains in most parts of the city. Mayor Raman Goyal failed to give a satisfactory reply to the agitated councillors.

First woman mayor has been facing opposition within the Congress councillors who rue that their seniority was compromised to favour a novice leader for the top seat.

Sensing a tough stand may be taken by the Congress councillors, the mayor had invited them all over breakfast before today’s meeting but several of them stayed away from the event.

MC’s inability to handle pvt agency

Councillors blamed an outsourced agency for poor maintenance of the city’s sewerage. They wanted the House to pass a resolution against the private agency for not attending to the complaints of choked sewage.

However, the mayor and municipal commissioner Pallavi Choudhary avoided responding to the demand.

Senior deputy mayor Ashok Pradhan said the local body has limited power to take any action against the agency due to the contractual clauses signed at the state level.