Liquor contractor back as Mohali MC chief

A liquor contractor has once again returned back as president of Mohali Municipal Council (MC). In less than three months after being removed from his post on the alleged charge of misuse of power, the local Congress MLA Balbir Sidhu’s close aide Rajinder Singh Rana on Tuesday re-occupied the chair of top civic post amidst celebrations and sweets distributions by his supporters and party activists.

Equipped with a copy of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which on Monday reinstated him, Rana arrived at the Municipal Bhawan in Sector 68 here and re-assumed his charge. Escorted by brass band and drum beaters with the ecstatic supporters dancing to their tunes, the Congress leader was garlanded and offered sweets as he sat on his coveted post once again.

Rana has replaced a leading realtor Kulwant Singh, who was elected MC president on April 15, on an unanimous choice of 20 of the total 30 elected municipal councillors but not without a secret directive from the ruling SAD president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, to whom Kulwant owed allegiance.

It was on April 9 that Principal Secretary to Punjab Department of Local Government C. Roul had ordered removal of Rana after concluding the resumed hearing of a case pending since 2007.

Rana had challenged the order before the High Court while terming it as an “arbitrary and outcome of political vendetta”.

Development to take a hit?
With the return of Rana as MC president, the local residents and even 20 municipal councillors owing allegiance to the ruling SAD feel that once again the development of the city will come to a standstill. “It was after almost three years of non-development that recarpeting of roads, parking lots and other development projects had started taking off with the ruling party taking over reigns of the civic body,” felt the locals, while accusing the party politics of playing havoc with the city’s development. However, Rana claimed that he will try his best to take ahead the development projects underway with the support and cooperation of all fellow councillors by rising above party politics.