Looking back 2023: Frequent transfer of Commissioners hits working of Jalandhar municipal corporation
Aakanksha N Bhardwaj
Jalandhar, December 15
This year, municipal corporation (MC) remained in headlines for all the wrong reasons. The year 2023 is coming to an end. The issues that cropped up in the year 2022 are yet to be resolved. Nothing has been done to address problems faced by the industrial town.
Like there is no headway in any of the projects under the Smart City, cleanliness has taken a backseat in the city, at times sewage treatment plants are non-functional, condition of roads is poor, streetlights are lying defunct, no new tenders have been floated for civil works and the list of issues goes on.
LOWS
- Decline in the Smart City ranking
- Poor civic amenities in Jalandhar
- Smart City projects hanging fire
- Cleanliness has taken a backseat
- City without mayor and councillors
HIGHS
- Electric-bus service expected to start under the Central Govt project which covers four districts of Punjab and Jalandhar is one of them.
- At least 97 electric buses would run in the city under the project.
The civic body drew flak because of its failure to deliver services to the public. Besides, accountability of officials concerned was lost because of frequent transfer of MC Commissioners.
Since last year, the MC has seen several Commissioners as nobody remained on the post for more than three to four months which affected the smooth functioning of the civic body. Recently, Aditya Uppal took charge as the new MC Commissioner. Before he assumed the charge, the post remained vacant for more than 15 days. This happened for the first time.
An year has gone and the city is without a mayor. There are no councillors. It seems that there is nobody to look after issues related to the public.
The number of garbage dumps has been increasing in the city with each passing day. Waste management problems have compounded.
The General House of the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation was dissolved on January 25 this year. Since then, speculations about when the corporation elections would be held were rife.
During the delimitation process, the number of wards increased from 80 to 85 in the city. This had drawn a lot of criticism from various political parties as they questioned the new map of the city. The Congress moved High Court against the delimitation of wards.
Work will be affected
Boundaries of three wards along my ward have changed. It will create problem. In such a scenario, development works in my ward will be adversely affected. — Kamaljeet Bhatia, Ex-Senior Deputy Mayor
Not only leaders of the Opposition parties, but the Aam Aadmi Party too had objected to the publication of the new map of 85 Wards in the city.
Former Senior Deputy Mayor Kamaljeet Singh Bhatia, who joined the AAP, said boundaries of three wards adjoining his ward were changed, which would create a problem. “In such a scenario, development works will be affected,” he said.
