The city streets are likely to remain dark and dingy for a few more days as proposals including those pertaining to streetlights and sanitation that were scheduled to come up for discussion during a House meeting of the Amritsar municipal corporation on June 10 has been deferred for some ‘administrative reasons’ best known to the MC authorities.
Many important proposals — including renewal of contract for the streetlights, hiring of a Delhi-based company, which looks into sanitary aspects of the Rashtrapati Bhawan, for the cleaning of the city roads and finalisation of the implementation of the 1976 building bylaws — will have to wait further for their approval by the MC, which is yet to decide a fresh date for the House meet.
The administrative reasons cited by the MC authorities for the postponing of the June 10 meeting, said MC officials, can be inaccessibility of officials of various departments, who are on leave these days.
However, some councillors, particularly those of the opposition, claimed that the meeting was rescheduled as the government had not returned the resolutions passed by the MC at the budget meeting.
Leader of the opposition in the MC House and Congress councillor Raj Kanwal Preet Pal Singh Lucky said: “As per rules, the MC House meets only when the resolutions passed in the previous meeting, which the MC sends to the state government, were returned to the MC by the government after its approval.”
{{/usCountry}}Leader of the opposition in the MC House and Congress councillor Raj Kanwal Preet Pal Singh Lucky said: “As per rules, the MC House meets only when the resolutions passed in the previous meeting, which the MC sends to the state government, were returned to the MC by the government after its approval.”
{{/usCountry}}“More than 68 days have elapsed since the MC’s budget session, but the government is yet to accord its approval to the proceeding and returned it to the MC,” he said.
Accusing mayor Bakshi Ram Arora of “acting in unconstitutional manner”, Lucky alleged that despite a walkout by the SAD councillors over repair of the roads leading to the Golden Temple on December 29, the mayor had passed all resolutions even though the House lacked quorum.
However, the mayor denied the charges, saying, “The meeting has been called off due to administrative reasons. A number of officials are on leave these days and their presence in the House during the meeting is mandatory as they have to respond to various queries,” he said.