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Akash Ghai
Tribune News Service
Mohali, March 28
‘Let’s talk to the people of Nagaland (where several tribal people eat dogs) and supply dogs to them’; ‘Let’s go to Delhi and hold a ‘dharna’ in front of Parliament’, these were some of the ‘reckless’ suggestions made by some councillors in today’s MC House meeting, which was mainly held for passing the Budget, but was hijacked by the stray dog menace, here.
In the meeting, which was held to pass the Mohali Municipal Corporation (MMC) Budget at the MC Bhawan in Sector 69, here, the dog issue virtually hijacked the main agenda. While it took just a few minutes to pass
Rs 21 crore deficit Budget in the meeting, most of the time was consumed in discussing ways to tackle the dog issue.
The issue was being termed as the ‘national problem’ following which a Congress councillor suggested that a dharna be held in front of Parliament in New Delhi.
When another councillor said Nagaland people should be contacted, visibly irritated Mayor Kulwant Singh asked him to talk to them (Nagaland people) himself. “tusi khud hi gal kar lo, main nhi kar sakda (You talked to them yourself, I can’t do this)”, said the Mohali Mayor.
However, the Mayor suggested that people should be motivated to adopt dogs and feed them. “They bite when they are hungry. If we feed them, they will stop biting people”, said the Mayor while asking the councillors to motivate people in their wards for the same.
Evidently, there was no taker for the Mayor’s suggestion. Finally, the long discussion ended in no result.
Advertisement display boards to be decreased
“To maintain the beauty of the town, the number of advertisement display boards will be decreased”, said Mayor Kulwant Singh. Like the current financial year, the targeted income through advertisement tax is set at Rs 10 crore. Advertisement tax can be increased this time, added Kulwant Singh.
Targeted income from city bus service
While the city bus service is being run on papers only till date, the MC authorities have already set Rs one crore as its targeted income from the new source in the next Budget. The MMC has made provision of Rs 7.50 crore in its proposed Budget to run the City bus service in the town for which it will take a bank loan of Rs six crore.
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