Opposition stages walkout, hold protest; Mayor passes agendas

The General House meeting of the MC today was a complete showdown after both Congress and BJP councillors staged a walkout, protested, raised slogans and alleged that the AAP government was breaching all protocols and working on its whims and fancies.

Police force was also present, which tried controlling the agitating councillors as they raised slogans against the AAP government. After walkout, the opposition councillors sat outside the venue and raised slogans.

Reacting to the allegations of not providing copies of the agenda, the Mayor said, “e-nigam has been implemented and the meetings of the General House will now go paperless. Gradually, e-office will also be implemented in the civic body offices for ensuring transparency and efficiency,” she said.

The Mayor further said that the general house has also implemented e-nigam in the civic body. Under this initiative taken to promote digitisation, the meetings of MC General House and Finance and Contracts Committee (F&CC) will go paperless on the lines of Punjab Assembly. An online record will also be maintained for future use. This time too, the agenda of the F&CC meetings held in the past was also shared with the councillors on WhatsApp.

Meanwhile, the General House held under the chairmanship of Mayor Inderjit Kaur at Guru Nanak Dev Bhawan on Friday approved resolutions for regularisation of around 800 over-age employees and around 470 beldars, gardeners, drivers, etc. The resolution for taking over different LIT scheme areas for maintenance, including Maharishi Valmiki Nagar, Rajguru Nagar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar Nagar, Bharat Nagar Extension, Sant Ishar Singh Nagar and Sukhdev Enclave was also approved.

Another resolution for providing jobs to next of kin of deceased employees on compassionate grounds was also okayed. A number of other resolutions regarding promotions/welfare of employees also got the nod.

Meanwhile, both Congress and BJP councillors alleged concealment of over 1,000 development agendas passed in the recent F&CC meeting. Leader of Opposition Shyam Sunder Malhotra said that the 1,500-page agenda of the meeting was given a day before in the evening and was sent only to the Leader of Opposition, while no councillor was given a copy. “How one can read 1,500 pages in a few hours. When the Mayor was questioned on this, she said that the agenda was never sent in advance,” he said.

Opposition councillors also said despite present tension this meeting was called.

Ludhiana Congress Committee (Urban) president Sanjay Talwar als condemned Friday’s General House and questioned the emergency of passing the agendas when the country was going through a difficult time. “There was no transparency and no councillor knew how much fund had been allotted to his/her ward for development. The meeting was held just for the sake of holding one,” said Talwar.

Rajneesh Dhiman, district BJP head, said that if only the Mayor and councillors had to take all decisions, then there was no need for a General House. “The agenda of the meeting was sent to a few at 11 pm on WhatsApp for the meeting next morning. All agendas were passed without discussion and there was no need for a meeting,” he said.

Ludhiana