Congress MLAs corner Mayor, MC commissioner over corruption charges

Saturday, 01/04/2017

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=175382&boxid=59157&uid=&dat=2017-04-01

Jalandhar : Amidst serious charges of corruption by the Congress and a section of SAD-BJP councilors, the budget session of the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation (MC) on Friday saw the newly elected congress MLAs cornering Mayor Sunil Jyoti and MC Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khaira.

Backed by the newly elected MLAs namely Pargat Singh from Jalandhar Cantonment, Sushil Kumar Rinku from Jalandhar West, Surinder Chaudhary from Kartarpur, Rajinder Beri from Jalandhar Central and Bawa Henry from Jalandhar North, the congress councilors targeted Mayor and Commissioner Khaira for failing to take action against the corrupt officials of the civic body.

Jalandhar North MLA Bawa Henry and leader of opposition Jagdish Raj Raja sought a report from Khaira about not following section 3.6 of the Punjab Municipal Account Code 1930 when a question was asked on January 20, 2014 during house meeting.

Though mayor tried to pacify the situation but an adamant Bawa Henry ensured that Khaira hold a meeting with the MC officials and provide a written report of what action would be taken against those facing corruption charges.

Khaira left the house meeting midway and came with a letter written to Director Local Bodies Department Punjab seeking action in this case. The letter read, “Though, we have assured of an action in this case but MLA North Bawa Henry was not satisfied with our action. We demand that a probe should be conducted at the government level while required question and its answer presented in the civic body was presented with the letter.”

Earlier, the congress councilors led by the newly elected MLAs asked Mayor Sunil Jyoti to prove his majority in the house, as SAD has 10 councilors, BJP (19), Independents (7) and Congress (23) including four independents and a section of those Akali and BJP councilors, who were opposed to Mayor.

The pandemonium over this issue continued till long with both mayor and the Jagdish Raj Raja exchanging heated arguments with each other. Not only the congress councilors even those from the BJP pointed out that how payments were made to the contractors without the issuance of the completion certificate. Councilor Minta Kochher said, “Rs 10 lakh was paid to the contractor whereas the work was not completed.”

Similarly, Deputy Mayor and AAP leader Arvinder Kaur Oberoi pointed out that how a road constructed in the year 2002 during Capt Amarinder Singh government was still in good shape. “On the other hand, the road constructed just three months ago has started developing pot holes”, she said.