Mixed response to HC stay order

Conversion of council into a corporation

Mohali, November 26
There is a mixed response from former municipal councillors to the stay orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued in connection with the government notifications converting the Mohali municipal council into a corporation.
While some of the former councillors have welcomed the orders
saying that the upgraded body had not played any major role in the development of the town, others said they were neither happy nor sad regarding the orders as these were only a part of the legal process and the final verdict was still awaited.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court yesterday stayed the notifications through which the local civic body was upgraded to the level of a corporation. The court had also issued a notice of motion to the department of local government, Mohali Deputy Commissioner and municipal corporation for January 9.
Rajinder Sharma, who owes allegiance to SAD, said he was happy with the orders of the court as the upgraded civic body had done nothing for the development of Mohali. He said NK Sharma, chairman of the district planning committee, had got several development works initiated in the town at his own level, but officials of the corporation had failed to show any results.
Parkash Wati said she was happy to learn about the orders of the court.
She said elected representatives had sacrificed eight months of their term hoping that Mohali would witness major development activities, but only faced disappointment. Moreover, former councillors were promised that they would be nominated to the upgraded civic body, but nothing happened, she added.
Another former municipal councillor Amteshwar Kaur said orders of the high court made no difference to her as she was only interested in the development and was not bothered whether this was carried out by the corporation or the council.

Sukhminder Singh Barnala, however, claimed that the corporation had carried out development works in the town and the government had spent a lot of money in this regard. Had the Congress-headed civic body not been dissolved, the government would have not spent so much here.