The Times of India 06.10.2010
Corporators demand probe into civic works
LUCKNOW: Unruly scenes dominated the initial proceedings of house at the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) on Tuesday. Corporators barged into the house well and staged a sit-in protesting against the absence of municipal commissioner Shailesh Kumar Singh from the proceedings, even as some of them claimed of having never seen the LMC boss.
The din overwhelmed even mayor Dinesh Sharma’s plea to get along with the business, forcing the first citizen to suspend the proceedings. The house assembled in the second half only to witness the corporators disrupting its proceedings once again. The dissenting group was led, as usual, by Raja Ram Mohan Roy ward corporator, Nagendra Singh Chauhan and JC Bose ward corporator, Yavar Hussain Reshu. The duo, with the support of a few other corporators, brought in a `Ninda Prastav’ against the working of municipal officials.
Voices were especially raised against civic works done by various agencies like Jal Nigam and LMC under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission ( JNNURM). Alleging gross irregularities while executing works under the Centre’s flagship scheme, corporators demanded a probe by CB-CID. Notably, the corporators have earlier been demanding their representation in the committee of officials executing the civic works.
This was followed by corporators upping their ante against the recent recruitment of 300 safai karamcharis, an exercise which they alleged was full of anomalies. Additional municipal commissioner P K Srivastava has been asked by mayor Dinesh Sharma to conduct an inquiry and submit a report.
The increase in house tax too came up for discussion during the house session, with the corporators seeking a drive against the tax defaulters. The corporators have been insisting that the corporation bosses bring to book the defaulters, instead of raising the house tax. By another decision, the LMC house also agreed to set up an inquiry into the incident of burning of files in LMC’s zone-6 office.
