The Indian Express              07.02.2014

Mayor’s office proposes House, budget meet on same day

Already flouting the rules by not organising a general House meeting once every month, Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC) is now facing strong criticism for proposal of holding general House meet and budget meet on the same day.

As per rules, MC House should meet at least once a month to discuss problems and grievances of city residents, but Ludhiana MC holds 2-3 meets in a year only. The last House meeting was held on January 17, and that too because the projects could not have been passed to JNNURM, New Delhi, without its approval.

Now, taking cover under an excuse of the code of conduct coming into force anytime for Lok Sabha elections, the civic body is planning to hold the budget and House meeting on the same day – which councillors say is just an “eyewash” to escape their questions and problems.

Gurpreet Gogi, councillor from Congress said, “Everything is happening against the Constitution. A House meeting cannot be held properly since grievances of more than 70 councillors cannot be heard in a single day. How can a budget meeting be also held on the same day? They are just planning a formality meeting. We completely oppose this proposal.”

Similar views were expressed by Inder Aggarwal, councillor from BJP. He said, “The House meeting itself needs at least two days to be conducted. Now, how can the budget be discussed in a few hours? It is a complete mockery of the system.” Independent councillor Daljit Grewal also shared the same views.

When contacted, Hartej Singh, secretary to Mayor said, “It is an initial proposal that both meetings will be held on the same day, but it has not been finalised. We thought that an hour will be enough to discuss the budget. But if councillors are opposing it, we will re-think the proposal.”