Sidhu wants ‘honest’ contractors, stalls parking auction in Ludhiana

Thursday, 15/06/2017

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LUDHIANA: The parking bids have only resulted in uproar since the mayor and his deputy exchanged blame over the allotment process of tenders after a finance and contract committee meeting held recently.

Following Punjab local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s directions, the MC stalled the process to open financial bids for five parking lots on Wednesday.

Now, Punjab local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has stalled the bidding process to assure that the contracts are awarded in a fair and transparent manner, and only to contractors with a ‘clean’ and ‘honest’ image.

Three out of five firms that were allowed to bid were accused of overcharging at Feroze Gandhi market, Ferozepur Road and the MC multilevel parking.

On Wednesday, the MC stoped the process to open financial bids for five parking lots, including the multilevel parking (Zone A), Ferozepur Road, Feroze Gandhi market, Sarabha Nagar main market and Block I market.

Five firms, including Sachin Sharma’s, Jugnu Enterprises, LRY, Arjun Yadav and Co and Anjali Enterprises, placed their technical bids last week.

Sidhu said, “I have directed the MC to stop the bid as I have received many complaints that tenders were floated in a manner so as to benefit selected contractors. I will act in this regard and want to make it clear that nobody will be allowed to fleece the public.”

He added that he will also conduct surprise checking at parking lots.

“Those overcharging visitors will not be spared,” he further said.

A proposal for cancelling the agreement with Sachin Sharma who handles Ferozepur Road parking lots was presented before the finance and contract committee (F&CC) last year, but is still pending.

Besides, the civic body never took action against LRY and Arjun Yadav and Co.

On June 7, a blame game between mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria and deputy mayor RD Sharma began over tenders for allotment of five parking lots. Both leaders accused each other of supporting contractors.

A city resident, Gurcharan Singh, said the MC should appoint its staff on parking lots instead of handing over to private firms.

“When the MC handled major parking lots, including Feroze Gandhi Market, Ferozepur Road and multilevel parking lots, the civic body staff never charged more fee than prescribed,” he added.

The MC commissioner, Jaskiran Singh, was unavailable for comment.

Action against an alleged parking mafia was a major issue during Vidhan Sabha elections and was a part of poll promises of many candidates.The existing contracts for parking lots will come to an end in July.