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Water-sewer tariff: Ludhiana mayor announces reinstatement of exemption for houses upto 125 sq yd
Facing flak from the opposition and his own party members over the revocation of the exemption on water-sewer charges for houses up to 125 square yards, mayor Balkar Sandhu rolled back the decision on Sunday
Facing flak from the opposition and his own party members over the revocation of the exemption on water-sewer charges for houses up to 125 square yards, mayor Balkar Sandhu rolled back the decision on Sunday.
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) had staged a protest against the MC on June 17. They had announced that they would stage an agitation outside the homes of 62 Congress councillors in the city on Monday.
A day before their protest, the mayor conducted a meeting with over a dozen Congress councillors at his camp office near Rose Garden on Sunday and announced that the resolution regarding revoking of the exemption will be annulled in the next house meeting of MC.Mayor Sandhu stated that the resolution has been kept pending as of now and the staff has been directed to continue the exemption for houses up to 125 sq yards area.
A new resolution to annul the previous one will be tabled during the next house meeting of MC, as per the norms.
Starting this financial year, the civic body had revoked the water-sewer fee exemption for houses up to 125 yards area and increased the water-sewer tariff by up to 60% for different categories. Only the houses with an area up to 50 sq yards with only ground floor were exempted from water-sewer charges.
BJP district president Pushpinder Singal said that the Congress is trying to befool the public by keeping the resolution pending ahead of assembly elections. “The resolution should be annulled immediately otherwise we will stage a protest outside the office/houses of all the 62 congress councillors with our demand on Monday.”
Mayor Sandhu stated that the decision to reinstate the exemption was taken during a meeting with MLA Dawar and the BJP was just trying to gain political mileage by raising baseless allegations.
Leader of BJP councillors Sunita Rani was also part of the committee which had earlier approved the revocation of exemption, he said.
Rather than misleading the residents, the BJP councillors should first stand with the farmers who have been protesting for the last seven months, he added.
Apart from BJP, Congress MLA Surinder Dawar and councillors from the central constituency had also opposed the decision during a meeting held with the mayor on June 24.
