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Road sweeping machines in Jalandhar: F&CC clears project amid resistance
Unfettered by the protest of Opposition —Congress and some of its own party councillors— the finance and contract committee (F&CC) on Friday gave its final approval to the controversial sweeping machine project.
Unfettered by the protest of Opposition —Congress and some of its own party councillors— the finance and contract committee (F&CC) on Friday gave its final approval to the controversial sweeping machine project.
The two sweeping machines that are being hired at the cost of Rs 30 crore for five years, is meant for cleaning the main roads of the city.
Mayor Sunil Jyoti said that they will hopefully get the project inauguarated on September 24, along with other new machineries by inviting deputy chief minister Sukhbir Sing Badal for the event.
As the municipal corporation Jalandhar (MCJ) authorities were already aware of the protest plan of the Congress, that has been opposing the project since its initiation, police security was beefed in the MC office from 1 pm though the F&CC meeting started at 3:30 pm. Moreover, nine police officers were present throughout the meeting in the hall.
Besides Congress, some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) members also came to oppose the project.
At the time when the F&CC was clearing the controversial cleaning machine project estimate along with 99 other works costing Rs 18.37 crore, the Congress and SAD councillors sitting in the mayor’s office were chanting slogans expressing support to the project and the mayor.
While the BJP and SAD councillors sat in the mayor office throughout the meeting that lasted one and a half hour, two BJP councillors Gopal Gupta and Minta Kochar staged dharna at the second entry point of the meeting hall.
The two councillors also expressed resentment about the high police security for a routine F&CC meeting. “The mayor has announced emergency in the MC office. What was the need for such a huge police force?” said Gopal Gupta.
Both councillors also alleged that they were stopped by a police officer at the entry point of the MC office.
The councillors further said that they will now take up the matter with state BJP chief Vijay Sampla.
Mahendru, Bhatia get their dissent noted
Among the six members of F&CC, BJP councillor Ravi Mahendru and senior deputy mayor Kamaljit Singh Bhatia got their dissent noted during the meeting. While interacting with the press, the leaders said that they raised various points during the meeting but the mayor and the commissioner didn’t reply to any of their questions.
They compared the sweeping machine model that will be hired by Jalandhar with that of Mumbai, Nagpur and Surat and stated they all these implemented the cleaning model at a lesser cost and in a transparent manner unlike MCJ.
Bhatia said that before Surat adopted the sweeping machine model, a demo was carried out for 15 days for the general public, councillors and press but in Jalandhar nothing of that sort was carried out.
Meanwhile, Mahendru said that a big city like Mumbai is investing `7 crore per year for seven road-cleaning machines while Jalandhar will be paying `6 crore for two sweeping machines. “This is clear cut corruption,” said Ravi Mahendru.
The F&CC members are mayor Sunil Jyoti, senior deputy mayor Kamaljit Singh Bhatia, municipal commissioner GS Khaira, deputy mayor Arvinder Kaur Oberoi, BJP councillor Ravi Mahendru and councillor Bhagwant Rai Prabhakar.
DGP forwards complaints to DC
Director general of police (DGP)-cum-chief director vigilance Suresh Arora has forwarded the complaint filed by Congress councillors on sweeping machines to deputy commissioner and him, seeking an inquiry into the matter.
