Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 26 Dec: A delegation of municipal corporators from Dehradun Municipal Corporation (Doon Nagar Nigam) and owing allegiance to Congress called on Urban Development Secretary Nitesh Jha at the Secretariat here today and submitted a memorandum raising objections over what they described as a discriminatory approach in municipal development works. The delegation was led by PCC Chief Ganesh Godiyal.
Speaking on the occasion, Godiyal claimed that development projects in the wards represented by Congress ward members are allegedly being kept pending deliberately, while projects involving expenditure of crores of rupees are being approved without any obstruction in the wards represented by BJP corporators. Godiyal asserted that the current situation is contrary to the democratic norms.
The PCC Chief further alleged that certain MLAs are getting development works worth crores of rupees executed by submitting proposals directly to the Municipal Corporation, which he claimed is against the established rules. He pointed out that MLAs are already provided separate government funds for development in their constituencies and argued that such actions amount to an encroachment on the powers and responsibilities of elected corporators. Godiyal asserted that an MLA, irrespective of party affiliation, represents the entire constituency and not a single political party and therefore extending priority only to representatives of the BJP is a matter of serious concern.
Godiyal urged the Urban Development Secretary to ensure equal treatment of all corporators within the Municipal Corporation and to immediately put an end to political discrimination in the approval of development works, warning that failure to do so would compel the Congress to launch a public agitation.
Urban Development Secretary Nitesh Jha heard out the delegation attentively and assured appropriate action.
Among those present on this occasion were municipal corporators Sangeeta Gupta, Sushant Bohra, Komal Bohra, Arjan Sonkar, Ramesh Kumar, Ityat Khan, Ashish Kumar, Monika, Abhishek Tiwari, Ayush Gupta and Birendra Singh Bisht, along with City Congress Committee president Jaswinder Singh Gogi, Pradesh spokespersons Abhinav Thapar, Rajesh Chamoli, Omprakash Sati, Ritesh Chhetri and Piyush Joshi, PCC members Surendra Rangad and Anurag Gupta.
