Corruption allegations echoes in house; Oppn councilors oppose transition of J&K into UT

JMC’s 7th General House Meeting

JAMMU: Noisy scenes were witnessed on Wednesday in the seventh general house meeting (GHM) of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) over its ‘inadequate’ action against corrupt officials.

The opposition councilors cornered Mayor Chander Mohan Gupta for ‘merely attaching’ corrupt officials.

“On one side, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)-led centre government bats for tough action against corrupt officials but JMC could only attach them,” Gourav Chopra, Congress councilor told The News Now after the meeting, demanding their suspension.

“Attaching officials or just barring them for field is not justified for corrupt practices. Our leaders are pushed behind bars and BJP is just barring them from field work,” he said, demanding stern action against corrupt officials.

The agenda of 7th General House Meeting was to resume proceedings from previous meeting. The meeting started around 11 am in the morning and concluded at 8 pm in the evening.

JMC Mayor, Chander Mohan Gupta had adjourned last meeting on 7th September after the councilors trooped well of the House protesting against alleged corruption in the urban local body (ULB).

“It was BJP Councilor, Pawan Singh speaking in the House wherein he asked why Rs 45 crore was not distributed among the Councilors while JMC had received the amount for development purposes eight months back,” Gourav Chopra said.

He said that on an average each of the 75 Councilors were supposed to gets Rs 60 lakh from that amount to develop their Wards.

“They alleged that independent and opposition councilors disturb the house meeting. I just told Mayor, that it was BJP Councilor, who pointed out corruption let him table the evidence of corruption,” Gourav Chopra said.

He added that the further issues related to establishment of illegal commercial buildings was also discussed in the meeting.

“At the end, opposition councilors unanimously rejected the transition of Jammu and Kashmir into Union Territory and demanded restoration of Statehood,” he said.

Another BJP councilor said that threadbare discussion on the development project was held in the meeting and house will reunite on November 15.