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MC to hold another round of F&CC meeting
The previous finance and contracts committee (F&CC) meeting held by MC had remained inconclusive due to a tussle between senior deputy mayor Sham Sunder Malhotra and medical officer Dr Vipul Malhotra over revision of charges to be paid to the cow shed at Tibba Road, Ludhiana
Municipal corporation will hold yet another round of finance and contracts committee (F&CC) on Saturday, with focus on issues like chlorination of tubewells and rain water harvesting.
The previous finance and contracts committee (F&CC) meeting had remained inconclusive due to a tussle between senior deputy mayor Sham Sunder Malhotra and medical officer Dr Vipul Malhotra over revision of charges to be paid to the cow shed at Tibba Road.
The agendas pertaining to installing and replacement of traffic lights, strengthening security at district court complex, deputy commissioner (DC) and police commissioner office and setting up of office to monitor the 24x7 water supply project, are likely to get a green signal during the meeting.
Gaushala row not to come up
The matter of fund to be allocated for upkeeping of Gaushala will be discussed separately and will not be part of the F&CC meeting.
Previously, senior deputy mayor Sham Sunder Malhotra had stormed out of the meeting on December 23 after the panel declined his proposal to pay the amount spent for upkeep of cattle over the past five years at the Prachin Gaushala on Tibba Road.
The senior deputy mayor had demanded payment for maintenance of stray cows for the period after the resolution was cleared by the MC house, while the officials had claimed they would pay the amount due from the date the agreement gets signed.
While confirming the development, senior deputy mayor Malhotra said, “the meeting will take place on Saturday at the mayor camp office, and the agenda for the meeting is already distributed.”
He maintained that the issue pertaining to the upkeep of cattle over the past five years at the Prachin Gaushala on Tibba Road was resolved following a meeting held on Thursday and the agreement has been formulated.
However, he refused to share any details regarding the amount of payment to the cow shed.
Malhotra was miffed and had accused the MC authorities of backtracking from their promise. Malhotra had said that MC had gotten stray cows rescued, but not paid a single penny for their upkeep since it started collecting cow cess in 2018.
“The gaushala is being run by utilising funds donated by philanthropists and noted industrialists in the city. I had urged MC officials to make a formal agreement, so that grants under cow cess can be directly allocated to the gaushala. But MC officials said it was not practically possible to start allocating funds for maintenance of 700 cows immediately,” said Malhotra.
He said that the five-year long delay in payment was due to a disagreement over the amount to be paid per day for each animal. “While MC was offering ₹30, we were asking for an allocation of ₹50 for each cow per day. The amount comes to ₹35,000 per day,” said Malhotra.
The councillors have long been requesting the mayor to conduct this meeting so that development works could get approved.
