Ahead of MC poll, Batala area chief turns heat on BJP

Batala, Considered a confidant of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Batala halqa in charge Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal has turned the heat on the BJP, demanding 26 of 35 seats in the Municipal Committee House.He has alleged that MC scams were being swept under the carpet because the Local Bodies Department is headed by a BJP minister.With MC elections round the corner, Lodhinangal is at loggerheads with the BJP.His animosity with the party dates back to the 2012 Assembly elections when he had claimed that the BJP rank and file did not help him following which he had to suffer a massive defeat at the hands of sitting MLA Ashwani Sekhri of the Congress.In his latest salvo fired at the MC, Lodhinangal claimed that out of 330 safai karamcharis employed on contract by a private contractor on behalf of the MC, 115 were fake.“As per rules, all employees (safai karamcharis) deployed in the Sanitation Department must have a bank account and also Provident Fund (PF) and ESI accounts in which their salaries are disbursed. However, 115 such employees do not have bank accounts following which their salaries are being allegedly embezzled by both the private contractor and MC employees, both of whom are hand in glove in the nefarious process of defrauding the MC coffers,” he claimed.Lack of proper street lighting in the steel town has always been a contentious issue for an assortment of reasons. “When some people complained to me about the non-existent street lights, I personally took a round of the city in the night and was shocked to see that nearly 70 per cent of the lights were non-functional,” he claimed.However, MC Executive Officer (EO) Bhupinder Singh denied Lodhinangal’s allegations saying that everything was in order.Lashing out at the EO, Lodhinangal said, “The EO, at the behest of a senior BJP leader, was transferred to the MC as Superintendent a few months ago. Despite the fact that he did not complete his probation period, he was given the charge of EO having drawing and disbursing (D&D) powers.”To this Bhupinder Singh said his probation period had ended in December subsequent to which he was given the charge of EO on January 15 this year. Earlier, Lodhinangal had come under fire from BJP leaders when he demanded that the SAD be given 26 seats to contest in the MC poll.