Mayor: Spent Rs 425 crore in 3 yrs on development works

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 24

The Congress-led Municipal Corporation (MC) house completed its three years on January 23. Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu on Sunday claimed that they spent Rs 425 crore on the development of the city during last three years. The amount is almost four times the Rs 125 crore spent on development works by the previous group in power. The development works of Rs 100 crore are also in the pipeline and budget has been sanctioned, claims Rintu.

Talking about the achievements, the Mayor claimed that the focus of the current MC house was to provide basic amenities like potable water, sewerage systems but sanitation was our priority.

“We have laid a 250-km-long potable water supply pipeline and solved the issue of water shortage. Now there is no area in the city where people complain of the poor water supply. The lifting of garbage was the major issue as the previous solid waste management firm was not working properly. We have replaced the firm with an international company, which is doing door-to-door collection, bio remediation and processing. All the sewerage treatment plants are functional. We got open-defecation free plus plus (++) grade from the Central Government,” the Mayor said.

However, the MC does not make any significant effort to remove illegal buildings and encroachments. The Mayor claimed that the previous government allowed more than 600 illegal buildings in the city. “We are trying to streamline the things but no illegal building will be allowed. The government dismissed a Municipal Town Planner for committing a wrong. Now we are strict on illegal buildings. As far as temporary encroachments are concerned, we have sent the sites to the government for street vending zones but they have not been approved yet. We are going to outsource a firm to manage encroachments in the city,” said Rintu.