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Mohindra holds meeting with MC councillors without Patiala mayor
Mohindra, with his trusted aide and PIT chairman Sant Banga, announced that works worth ₹50 crore will be initiated within next two months and asked the councillors to submit plans for their areas
Punjab local bodies minister Brahm Mohindra held a meeting with 26 councillors of Patiala (rural) constituency on Sunday and asked them to submit proposals of development works in their respective wards through the Patiala Improvement Trust (PIT).
The meeting comes a week after Mohindra had curtailed the powers of Patiala mayor Sanjeev Sharma Bittu by shifting development works of Patiala (rural) from the municipal corporation’s kitty to that of PIT.
Mohindra, with his trusted aide and PIT chairman Sant Banga, announced that works worth ₹50 crore will be initiated within next two months and asked the councillors to submit plans for their areas.
The minister ‘did not involve mayor Bittu in the process’ and said that the projects for Patiala (rural) will be handled by the PIT.
To avoid any controversy on party level, Mohindra involved District Congress Committee (DCC) president KK Malhotra, a close aide of Patiala MP (member Parliament) Preneet Kaur in the meeting. He informed the councillors that he had shifted the works from MC to PIT after taking approval of chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
On demand of the councillors, he gave a go-ahead for development work from Choti Nadi to Gurbax Colony, while assuring to cover sewage nullah in Tajjafalpura to railway factory as well. Both the projects will cost around ₹25 crore.
“Make exhaustive development plans for your areas. The CM has assured me that funds will be provided,” he said.
Mohindra told the media that there is no politics involved in shifting of the development works to the PIT. “Similar development plan is on at Bathinda and Amritsar, where large areas of the cities are being developed by the respective improvement trusts,” he said.
“During the SAD-BJP regime, 15 wards each were developed by the PIT and Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA). As lot of funds are flowing in, we need PUDA, public works department (PWD), PIT and other departments to undertake works to ensure their completion before the next assembly elections,” he added.
He added that Captain will soon announce funds for Patiala through the local bodies department. He has directed Sant Banga to make estimates of development works within a week so that funds can be sanctioned in 10 days.
The tiff between the mayor and councillors of Mohindra’s constituency is on for over a year now. However, it became public on January 26, when the mayor held a religious function and invited all prominent leaders from Patiala rural to project himself as the next candidate from the seat as Mohindra, who is a two-time MLA from there, has been unwell for some time.
Meanwhile, mayor Bittu said that he was busy attending party functions in Chandigarh and Patiala. “Neither was I aware of any such meeting, nor do I wish to comment on it. Mohindra has every right to conduct a meeting with councillors of his constituency. It was not an official meet,” he said.
