Oppn cries foul, says Rs.100-crore agendas passed sans discussion
Chandigarh, May 2 -- A day after table agendas worth over Rs.100 crore were 'hastily' passed during the General House meeting of the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC), a political storm erupted on Friday with councillors of both Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled MC of destroying the democratic process and allegedly misusing taxpayers' money.
The MC House meeting on Thursday had started at 11.15 am with a welcome address by mayor Saurabh Joshi. MC officials were in full attendance with the required quorum met. However, it was only at 3.40 pm that the minutes of the previous House meeting that was held on April 8 could be confirmed as councillors had multiple objections to the same. All the preceding hours were consumed by chaos and heated discussions over various issues, including delay in clearance of legacy waste at Dadumajra dumping ground among others.
At one point, the arguments in the House got so heated up that the mayor had to adjourn the House for sometime. It was only around 4 pm that the councillors started to deliberate on the main and supplementary agendas.
Around 4.30 pm, the table agendas were given to the councillors and passed within minutes even as AAP and Congress councillors raised a hue and cry stating that they should at least get some time to go through these. Table agenda refers to last-minute or urgent items introduced at the beginning of a meeting, often added after the formal, pre-circulated agenda has been sent out. These items are literally placed "on the table" for immediate discussion or approval.
The Opposition councillors questioned the manner in which key proposals such as the reconstruction of two multi-level parking facilities in Sector-17 and the modernisation of the city's multispecies abattoir in Industrial Area Phase-I, among others, were passed without anydiscussion.
Addressing mediapersons, AAP Chandigarh president Vijaypal Singh, leader of Opposition Hardeep Singh Buterla, former mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor, and chief spokesperson Yogesh Dhingra jointly raised concerns over the functioning of the MC and accused the BJP and Congress of destroying democratic processes, misusing taxpayers' money, and reducing the civic body to a "rubber-stamp institution." The AAP city chief said that rules require all agendas for House meetings to be circulated to councillors in advance so that they can study them, seek clarifications from officials, and discuss them in the public interest. "This system has completely collapsed. Supplementary agendas are now circulated late at night and passed the very next morning without any discussion or debate," he said. Singh added that in all, projects worth nearly Rs.190 crore (including table and supplementary agendas) were approved, without giving councillors sufficient time to read the proposals. Leader of Opposition Buterla said that in the last 20 years, he had never witnessed such a situation where agendas involving crores of rupees were passed without even being properly read or discussed.
Chandigarh Pradesh Congress Committee president HS Lucky said the MC and the BJP are not following proper procedures.
"According to established rules, any agenda must be shared with councillors at least 72 hours in advance so they can prepare thoroughly, discuss it properly, and present their views. Due to BJP's haste and negligence, the 24x7 water project in Manimajra has completely failed, and similar reports of corruption have surfaced in several other projects," he said.
The table agendas included the re-construction of the existing multi-level parking near the 30 bays building in Sector-17.
As per the agenda, the structure has been declared unsafe by IIT Roorkee and is currently lying abandoned, leading to congestion in nearby parking areas. The MC had sought technical inputs and drawings from the UT administration's engineering wing (CAUT), and the project is planned for execution in 2026-27 under the Capital head "civic work."
Similarly, a table agenda proposed the re-construction of another multi-level parking facility near the 17 bays building and Telephone Exchange inSector-17. As per the proposal, this structure has also been declared unsafe.
Mayor Joshi remained unavailable for comments despite several attempts to reach him....
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