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Over 100 projects cleared at Ludhiana Municipal Corporation committee meet
Mayor Inderjit Kaur said detailed discussions were held on several agendas during the meeting and the progress of ongoing projects was reviewed with officials of various departments.
The Finance and Contracts Committee (F&CC) of the municipal corporation approved over 100 resolutions related to development works during a meeting held at the Mayor Camp Office on Friday.
The committee cleared several civic projects, including construction of roads, installation of new tubewells and other development works across the city. Earlier, around 205 resolutions had already been approved in previous meetings and with the latest clearances, the number of sanctioned proposals has risen further.
However, a supplementary agenda placed before the committee drew objections from senior deputy mayor Rakesh Prashar and deputy mayor Prince Johar. Both members said they had not been given adequate time to examine the additional resolutions and demanded that the meeting be reconvened after the proposals were properly reviewed.
During the meeting, the horticulture branch also placed proposals to hand over maintenance of some prominent central verges in the city to private firms. Members suggested forming a special committee to review the verges that had earlier been given to private agencies and assess whether these were being properly maintained.
The committee also decided to debar a contractor firm from participating in future MC tenders after it was found that the firm had failed to execute the work properly and had allegedly used substandard material.
Meanwhile, a proposal from the operation and maintenance (O&M) cell to outsource maintenance of the city’s sewer system to a private agency was kept pending for further discussion. Proposals to hire sewer cleaners and sweepers through outsourcing were also discussed and will now be examined by a committee to be formed under the mayor.
Mayor Inderjit Kaur said detailed discussions were held on several agendas during the meeting and the progress of ongoing projects was reviewed with officials of various departments. She added that authorities had been directed to ensure development works were completed with quality, transparency and within the stipulated time to improve civic facilities for residents.
During the meeting, deputy mayor Prince Johar also raised the issue of illegal roadside vendors on Gill Road and asked officials to remove carts as they were causing traffic congestion. However, officials told the committee that whenever action was taken against the vendors, they allegedly received calls from the local MLA asking them not to proceed. Johar expressed dissatisfaction over the response and warned that he would stage a protest if no action was taken. He added that he had earlier raised the issue of illegal constructions as well, but officials had given similar explanations then too.
