MUNICIPAL COUNCILLORS “unhappy” over functioning of Ludhiana Municipal Corporation

Ludhiana, March 12, 2013: Majority of the municipal councillors who spoke in the general house meeting of Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (LMC) here on Tuesday, expressed their unhappiness over the functioning of the Corporation. They expressed that the Corporation’s was almost non-functional for the last nine months since elections were held.

It was the first ever meeting of the general house of LMC after elections were held about nine months ago.

In their address, majority of the MCs regretted that almost all the development works were standstill for the last about nine months following which they were facing a great embarrassment before public. They said they were finding themselves unable to face queries of people. After all they were the elected representatives, they pointed out.

Rakesh Prashar, a municipal councillor, even addressed both Municipal Commissioner and Mayor, without “Sahib”. “I am doing so because people of my area have started calling me like this”, said Rakesh, adding the main reason of people’s annoyance was that no development was taking place for the last nine months.

A few municipal councillors also condemned the functioning of bureaucrats in LMC. They regretted that the bureaucrats were not paying any heed to their complaints and requests. Expressing his concern, Daljit Singh Grewal, a municipal councillor, said he wanted to tell all the bureaucrats that only bureaucrats had not got freedom in 1947, they all got freedom.  He asserted that bureaucrats should start giving due respected to elected representative of people and listen to their grievances. Bureaucrats should not consider them as their slaves, he said.

Majority of MCs also opposed a move of introducing steep property tax in the near future. They said if this tax was to be introduced then it should be reasonable, so that people should pay it happily. They asserted that the unit value fixation should be done reasonably for introducing this new tax, they asserted.

On the issue of charging development charges at the time of issuance of TS1, Gurpreet Singh (Gogi), a municipal councillor of the Congress, led strong arguments for over 15 minutes. He urged the Mayor and the Municipal Commissioner to drop the same in the larger interest of people. He asked all the municipal councollors to raise their hands for dropping development charges at the time of issuance of TS1. SAD MLA Simarjit Singh Bains also supposed the point raised by Gurpreet Singh. However, the SAD MLA Ranjit Singh Dhillon opposed that Municipal Commissioner on his own had accepted the demand. He opined that taxes were compulsory for generating the revenue for undertaking development works. Finally, the demand was added and accepted in the House’s agenda. Now, the matter would be referred to the state government for final approval, said the sources.

When a couple of municipal councillors raised fingers towards deteriorating financial condition of the Corporation, the Municipal commissioner admitted that there was financial crunch in LMC. He said all financial figures would be tables in the Budget Session of the Corporation.

Objection was also raised in handing over supplementary agenda before start of the meeting. It was urged that copies of supplementary agenda, if any, be handed over to them prior to the meeting, so that they could study it thoroughly.

The municipal councillor Swarjnit Chahal raised the issue of corruption prevailing in Tehbazari Wing of the Corporation. He said certain officials of the wing took bribe to allow rehri and phari wallas. He also cited an example following which the Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwarhia said asked the councillor to reveal the name of the officials so that action could be initiated.

Several agendas were passed in the meeting.