Projects come to a halt,residents say poll results to blame

A prime example is the Bank Colony on Noorwala Road,where a road-metalling project came to a sudden halt about three months ago after residents put up banners in support of the Congress. A resident claimed that area councillor Ranjit Dhillon,who belongs to SAD,had openly declared that he would not work for them in the future,after seeing the dismal results in the Lok Sabha polls.

Dhillon,however,denies making any such statement. “My entire ward voted for SAD and I have no reason to complain. The colony is not an approved one and hence only brick-pavement work can be done on the roads here.”

Congress councillor Gurpreet Gogi from Ward Number 53,too,complained that SAD MLA Harish Dhanda stopped road-metalling work worth Rs 90 lakh in the area.

Dhanda,however,refuted the allegations. “The area councillor had somehow managed to get his work done out of turn. On Thursday,the machines were sent back to the area where the work was sanctioned first. All sanctioned works will be completed when their turn comes and voting patterns cannot determine the fate of any project.”

Congress councillors Mukhtiar Kaur of Ward Number 28 and Hem Raj Aggarwal of Ward Number 27 said: “In Sangat Darshan programmes,nearly Rs 14 crore was sanctioned for our wards,but no work has started till date. The pick-and-choose policy followed by the ruling party is not justified.”

In the past,residents have complained several times to the MC Commissioner that their respective areas were getting step-motherly treatment from the councillor concerned as they had voted for another candidate in the municipal and Assembly elections. While Commissioner

G S Ghuman was not available for comments despite repeated attempts,Superintending Engineer of the Building and Roadways department,Dharam Singh,told Newsline: “Our work has nothing to do with the political statements of any leader or councillor. Projects which have been sanctioned will be carried out and no councillor can stop them.”

He denied that work on any project was halted mid-way. “Machines may have been sent to other wards where they were needed on a priority basis. They will be returned once the work is done,” he added.