Sans head, Amritsar civic body’s work adversely affected

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, January 16

It’s been almost a year since the General House of municipal corporation (MC) was dissolved. The civic body sans public representative and an administrative head taking a toll on its the day-to-day functioning and development works.

A local RTI activist Pramod Chandra Bali had field a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in this regard. The court had issued a notice to the Punjab Government and the State Election Commission and directed the state counsel to inform the court about the schedule to hold elections for the MCs, which were overdue since January 21, 2023.

This is for the first time in the history of the MC that elections have not been held for one year. The Amritsar Municipal Council was upgraded to the municipal corporation in 1990.

Om Prakash Soni became the Mayor of the MC for the first time. After the completion of the tenure of Mayor Om Prakash Soni, the MC elections were delayed by a few months. After this, six elections were held during the last 30 years without any major delay.

Karamjit Singh Rintu was elected Mayor in the year 2018. The tenure of the MC ended in January 2023. After the end of the General House tenure, the Local Bodies Department appointed Municipal Corporation Commissioner as its administrative head.

Ironically, since last 40 days, the MC does not have a full time Commissioner. Municipal Corporation Commissioner Rahul was transferred to the Bathinda MC on December 5 last year.

On December 15, Secretary, Department of Local Government, had given the charge of Municipal Corporation Commissioner to Amritsar Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ghanshyam Thori. Although Thori visits the MC office, holds meetings and visits the field, the works of the civic body are reportedly getting affected.

All departments of the MC are lagging behind in recovering dues. The annual target of the MC Property Tax Department is Rs 45 crore. So far, the department has collected Rs 31.65 crore.

Similarly, the recovery of water supply and sewerage bills, income of the licensing and advertising wings and the MTP wing is far behind targets. The MTP wing is not approving building plans or issuing NoCs to owners. Similarly, Smart City works are also getting delayed. There is no check of the MC on garbage lifting and sanitation in the city.