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Ex-mayor challenges Patiala MC’s ₹1,000-cr development claims
Throwing an open challenge to the Patiala municipal corporation’s claims of carrying out development projects worth over ₹1,000 crore, former mayor Ajitpal Singh Kohli has come up with completely different figures procured from the civic body through the Right to Information Act.
Throwing an open challenge to the Patiala municipal corporation’s claims of carrying out development projects worth over ₹1,000 crore, former mayor Ajitpal Singh Kohli has come up with completely different figures procured from the civic body through the Right to Information Act.
As per the RTI response, the Patiala MC have received grants worth ₹90.18 crore since Congress came into power in Punjab in March 2017.
“The figures provided by MC’s deputy controller finance and accounts state that of the total ₹90.18 crore, the MC has utilized ₹70.93 crore by December 4, 2019. The civic body is yet to utilise ₹19.25 crore of the funds allotted,” said Kohli, who remained Patiala mayor from 2007 to 2012.
Further bifurcating the figures, the RTI response reveals that the municipal corporation had received ₹50.85 crore under chief minister grant head, ₹13.98 crore under urban environment, ₹2.86 crore from Punjab Infrastructure Development Board, ₹3.62 crore under central schemes and ₹1.69 crore for the dairy-shifting project.
“I am not unnecessarily criticising the MC but the senior leaders, including mayor Sanjeev Sharma Bittu should stop lying to people regarding carrying sea development works in Patiala. Contrary to their claims of using ₹1,000 funds, they had received only 90.18 crore in the past three years of the Congress government in state,” Kohli said.
“Congress leaders keep blaming the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for poor development, but all major projects started by their government, including beautification of Rajindra lake, setting up of a solid waste management plant, dairy-shifting project and canal-based water supply project, are in a limbo,” he added.
Contradicting Kohli’s claim, mayor Sanjeev Sharma Bittu said that the former mayor has come up with fudged figures. “The city has witnessed scores of development projects in the past three years,” he said.
“During Kohli’s tenure, he had sold three prime properties of the MC in order to generate revenue for development of the city. However, we have not sold any property and are banking on government funds for carrying out development works here,” the mayor said.
“Last year, tenders for canal-based water supply project, worth ₹650 crore, were floated. Moreover, we have received two instalments of ₹18 crore and ₹14 crore, each, under the centrally-sponsored Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme,” he said.
‘SENIOR LEADERS HAVE LOST FAITH IN MAYOR, HE SHOULD RESIGN’
Jumping into the recent controversy that had erupted after the local government department had given charge of development in Patiala rural wards to the improvement trust, the former mayor said that the incumbent mayor should resign as he has lost faith of senior leaders of his party, including Punjab local bodies minister Brahm Mohindra.
Days after mayor Bittu held a show of strength rally and became a claimant of the assembly ticket from Patiala (rural), sitting MLA and local bodies minister Mohindra had shifted the development works of half of the city area, falling in the rural segment, from the municipal corporation’s kitty to that of the Patiala Improvement Trust (PIT).
“Bittu has become a laughing stock in the city after the minister clipped his powers. Either he should resign, or Congress should give him a free hand to do development works in city,” Kohli said.
Mayor Bittu said that this is not for the first time that the improvement trust has been given charge of development works at area falling under the MC’s jurisdiction. “We are working as one unit. There is no confusion between the MC and the improvement trust,” he said.
“Civic body is not the only agency that looks after development works. Some works are carried out by the public works department, irrigation and sanitation department, improvement trust and Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) as well,” he added.
