BJP-Congress councillors stage walkout at Ambala House meeting

The BJP councillors, including Toni Chaudhary and Sandeep Sachdeva, got into an argument with the Ambala mayor and termed it as an insult to the House

Councillors from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress on Thursday walked out of the House meeting, alleging apathy by municipal officials and employees for House meetings, and accusing mayor Shakti Rani Sharma of favouring them.

Councillors from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress staging a sit-in near the gate of Panchayat Bhawan in Ambala on Thursday. (HT Photo)

The BJP councillors, including Toni Chaudhary and Sandeep Sachdeva, got into an argument with the mayor and termed it as an insult to the House.

As many as 14 of the total 20 House members, including senior deputy mayor Meena Dhingra, later staged a sit-in near the gate of Panchayat Bhawan and raised slogans against the mayor.

Congress councillor Mithun Verma said, “We informed the officials that the House proceedings of the April 3 meeting were not formally added in the records. But when I objected that several issues were missed, the mayor told us that such issues were not passed. Legally, every issue if passed or not, that was part of the agenda and discussed at the meeting, has to be part of the proceedings.”

Despite the walkout, the mayor continued the meeting with six councillors of the Haryana Jan Chetna Party (HJCP).

They raised several issues like cleanliness, sweeping, street lights and stray animals, among others. The mayor and deputy municipal commissioner Deepak Sura sought answers from the officials for early redressal.