MC approaches court against JITF Company

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 17

The Municipal Corporation of Bathinda (MCB) has filed a case against JITF Company, which is running the solid waste management plant, accusing the company of going away from the contract agreement after the latter gave a termination notice regarding leaving the work and stopping the plant from January 18.

This has come as a surprise move from the MCB as Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal is assuring residents that the plant would be shifted.

Moreover, the MCB has twice, in its general house meeting, passed the resolution for closing the plant.

JITF Company and the Local Bodies Department had signed a contract for running the solid waste plant for 25 years from November 23, 2011 to December 2036.

Started as a pilot project in Bathinda, the solid waste treatment plant faced the ire of the public within a week after it got operational on a trial basis in January 2016.

Since then, residents of around 20 colonies near the plant have been protesting against it. They had also announced to boycott the SAD candidate in the Assembly elections, after which Manpreet had announced to shift the plant after coming to power. He had also included this demand in his manifesto.

Even in two years, JITF Company and MCB are also having dispute for not fullfilling the contract norms.

They are fighting a legal battle in the National Green Tribunal, New Delhi. However, a few months ago, the NGT had cancelled the cases and told both parties to resolve their dispute at their own level.

But both parties have failed to resolve their matter on their own.

Irked over which JITF Company gave consultation notice to the MCB, but when the latter did not give any satisfactory reply, the JITF sent termination notice to the director of the Local Bodies Department on December 5, 2018.

In the notice, it is stated that if the department cannot fulfil its agreement norms, then it should cancel their contract and they should be given their money. 

But on January 5, after not getting any satisfactory reply, it shot a letter to the Principal Secretary of the Local Bodies Department. 

Mayor Balwant Rai Nath confirmed that the MCB had filed a case against JITF Company in a local court.