Jalandhar gets its 7th civic body chief in less than two years

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, January 29

Ever since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) took over the reins of Punjab, Jalandhar has had its seventh Municipal Commissioner with the last two rejigs coming in a span of 50 days.

Other transfers

ADC Phagwara-cum-MC Commissioner Amit Kumar Panchal has been appointed as Deputy Commissioner of Kapurthala replacing Capt Karnail Singh. Amarpreet Kaur Sandhu, who was ADC Kapurthala, has been transferred as Chief Administrator, Jalandhar Development Authority, where Deepshikha Sharma was last posted.

The tenure of 2015 batch IAS officer Aditya Uppal, who took charge on December 9 last, ended today as he was replaced by Gautam Jain, two years his junior. Uppal has moved to Pathankot as Deputy Commissioner.

Jain was last posted as Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) in Ludhiana. The frequent transfers in the civic body have adversely affected its working, hampering the pace of development badly in the city areas. The condition of city’s infrastructure has been going from bad to worse in Local Bodies Minister Balkar Singh’s hometown as there have been no elections to the MC even though the term of the previous House ended in January 2022.

Prior to Uppal’s posting here, the MC Commissioner’s post had remained vacant for more than two weeks ever since Rishi Pal Singh, the Commissioner had been transferred without any replacement. Before him, Abhijeet Kaplish remained posted here for nine months, the longest tenure that any MC Commissioner so far has got in Jalandhar in the AAP government.

IAS officer Devinder Singh served here from July 2022 to November 2022. He had taken over from Deepshikha Sharma, who remained on the post for a short span of just two months. Her predecessor Karnesh Sharma, however, was the MC Commissioner here for over 28 months.