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Panchkula MC meet: Ruckus in House, agenda cleared without discussion

Congress and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) councillors pushed, shoved and fell just short of raining blows on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors over the parking issue

Published on: Nov 13, 2021, 24:49:46 IST
By , Panchkula
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Ruckus was witnessed in the Panchkula municipal corporation (MC) general house meeting as Congress and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) councillors pushed, shoved and fell just short of raining blows on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors.

A heated argument between councillors and mayor Kulbhushan Goyal in the presence of former Union minister Ratan Lal Kataria during the house meeting suspend in Panchkula. (Sant Arora/HT)
A heated argument between councillors and mayor Kulbhushan Goyal in the presence of former Union minister Ratan Lal Kataria during the house meeting suspend in Panchkula. (Sant Arora/HT)

Looking at the unruliness in the House, mayor Kulbhushan Goyal called off the meeting after announcing that all the agendas were passed with a majority without discussion.

As soon as the meeting started, Congress councillors started raising objections and accusing MC of being biased in development works and even tore the copies of agenda in the meeting, claiming that they were never asked to put forth the issues of their wards. JJP was opposing paid parking in Sector 14 and Sector 20 in Panchkula.

Congress councillor Salim Khan did not allow the discussion on the agenda to begin. Soon, all the Congress councillors got up from their seats, raised slogans and charged at mayor Kulbhushan Goyal, Haryana assembly speaker Gian Chand Gupta and Member Parliament (MP) Ratanlal Kataria, who was presiding the meeting.

Alleging bias in development, councillor Salim Khan said, “He was not asked about the issues of his ward for the meeting.”

JJP councillor Sushil Kumar Garg argued with deputy municipal commissioner Deepak Sura. High-pitched exchanges were seen between Garg and Sura over the paid parking of Sector 20, Panchkula.

Seeing the councillors Pankaj Kumar, Usha Rani, Sandeep Sohi, Salim Khan, Sushil Garg not returning to their seats, BJP councillors stood up in defence and asked the opposition councillors to allow the meeting to continue. This led to a scuffle between the councillors of BJP and opposition.

Congress councillors misbehaved with MC officials as well: Mayor

Panchkula mayor Kulbhushan Goyal said, “The way Congress councillors behaved was condemnable and they have crossed all lines. They even did not refrain from misbehaving with female councillors and MC officials.”

He said “Congress is trying to obstruct the development of the city thus they created ruckus today.”

He said, “Ward number 4 councillor Sushil Garg was part of the sub-committee and he also gave approval to the paid parking in Sector 20 and it was on his suggestion that paid parking was introduced. Garg was also part of two meetings for revenue realisation in which the paid parking agenda was discussed and told the work of inviting tender for paid parking has been done.”

Goyal termed the claims of “no development” by Ward number 20 councillor Salim Khan “completely baseless”.