Ludhiana Congress leaders protest delay in development projects
Leading the protest, district Congress president Sanjay Talwar, councillor Mamta Ashu and deputy senior mayor Sham Sunder Malhotra said they had come to meet the municipal corporation officials to put forward their issues
Criticising the municipal corporation and Aam Aadmi Party government for delaying development projects in their wards and not issuing work orders, councillors and office bearers of the Congress party on Tuesday staged a protest outside the civic body’s Zone-D office.
Leading the protest, district Congress president Sanjay Talwar, councillor Mamta Ashu and deputy senior mayor Sham Sunder Malhotra said that they had come to meet the municipal corporation officials to put forward their issues.
Malhotra said that despite having been informed, no official was present in their office due to which they were protesting peacefully.
The protesters said that with the current term of the councillors set to end on March 25, the MLAs of the current dispensation want to take credit for the projects passed during the Congress government.
The councillors signed their demand letter seeking the start of the projects for which work orders have been issued and pasted it on the wall inside the corporation’s office.
District Congress president Sanjay Talwar said that common people are bearing the brunt of the acts of the municipal corporation officers. He said that despite being passed by the finance committees in 2021, work orders are not being issued for a number of projects.
He said that most of the development projects which are being inaugurated were passed during the previous Congress government, adding that they will reconvene after two days to press their demands, and they will gherao the municipal corporation office if their demands were not met.
He said that every councillor gets ₹1.5 crore each for the development of their wards. He added that Congress has a majority in the MC house and after the house will be dissolved, the AAP MLAs will inaugurate the projects and take credit for the same.
Malhotra said that major projects, including the cleaning of Buddha Nullah and various projects under the smart city, were initiated by the Congress government.
Action being taken against contractors over delay, says MC chief
Municipal corporation chief Shena Aggarwal on Tuesday said that the civic body has recently put three contractors on notice for delaying the development works.
A warning has also been issued to other contractors that strict action will be taken if they fail to complete the projects within the stipulated deadline, she said.
Aggarwal said that in the last three weeks only, the civic body has issued around 60 work orders for the construction of roads, parks, installation of tubewells, sewer lines etc at a cost of over ₹20 crore.