Ujjain: The Congress and BJP representatives in the District Planning Committee (DPC) indulged in verbal duel on the issue of proposed dismantling of old houses and commercial establishments located in vicinity to the Mahakaleshwar Temple in the name of Smart City Project.
Moreover, Mayor Meena Jonwal took it as an exception that the officials have been executing the development plans as per their sweet will. Looking at the mood of most of the members, district minister in-charge Sajjan Singh Verma had to say that decisions should be taken as per the prevailing situation and not on the basis of whims of collectors.
CONG CHIEF STIRS HORNEST’S NEST
City Congress Committee president Mahesh Soni raised this issue during 150-minute long DPC meeting, which was convened at Simhastha Fair Authority office, here on Monday, after about 130 days of the previous meeting.
State PWD minister and district in-charge Sajjan Singh Verma presided over the meeting. Soni appeared quite aggressive on the proposal to acquire huge land in front of the Mahakaleshwar Temple.
He suggested that land lying near Maharajwada School, Bharat Mata Mandir and Rudra Sagar pond should be acquired, if necessary, for the implementation of the project.
Soni even went on to say that he has sufficient evidence to prove that the land on which Mahakal Bhakt Niwas has been constructed by the RSS’ Madhav Seva Nyas near Mahakaleshwar Temple is the government land.
MAYOR TAKES A DIG AT COMMISSIONER
This remark of Soni irritated BJP MLA Mohan Yadav who said that the former was putting his submission out of reference. On the behest of minister, Ujjain Municipal Corporation commissioner
Pratibha Pal informed that formalities have been initiated by the town and country planning department (T&CP) to acquire land in front of the Mahakaleshwar Temple and several objections and suggestions have been received on it, but no final decision has been taken on it.
When minister asked the mayor to make her point on the issue, she expressed surprise on any such proposal. She said that if the concerned authorities have made any such provision during the enforcement of model code of conduct for elections, then she has nothing to say.
Surprised over mayor’s response, minister said why she did not press for enquiry into the matter, Jonwal said as Pratibha Pal did not respond properly she had to write to divisional commissioner and district collector to enquire into the matter, but no action has been taken so far.
Later on, the minister announced that a meeting which was convened on the proposed dismantling in Bhopal on Tuesday under the aegis of T&CP has been postponed.
MEMBERS HIGHLY CRITICAL OF ERRANT OFFICIALS
Issues related to power supply arrangements, farmers’ loan waiver, water crisis, preparations for kharif crop etc were also raised by the members. Both Congress and BJP MLAs namely Mahesh Parmar, Murli Morwal, Ramlal Malviya, Dilip Singh Gurjar, Bahadur Singh Chouhan and Mohan Yadav were quite vocal on these issues.
Newly-elected BJP Member of Parliament Anil Firojia also joined them and put question marks on the power supply arrangements, preparedness to deal with the water crisis, waiving loans of the farmers, etc, and sought minister’s intervention at once.
MLAs were anguished on the attitude of concerned officials and said they are being defamed over the current issues. They also charged that most of the officials use to mislead them and always said that they don’t have funds. Responding to their submissions, the minister directed collector Shashank Mishra and SP Sachin Atulkar to do needful.
He also warned the departmental officials that acts like furnishing wrong or misleading information and non-cooperation will not be tolerated and punitive action will be taken against them after probe.
BJP MLA LOSES COOL
From BJP, three times MLA from Mahidpur Bahadur Singh Chouhan and from Congress first time MLA from Tarana Mahesh Parmar dominated the proceedings of the DPC.
On almost all issues they exhibited their home work and also about their knowledge with regard to the ground realities. At the end of the meeting, Chouhan lost his cool and went on to say that if no action is being taken against the land mafias who have made illegal encroachments on 60 bigha government land in village Sakariya under Jharda police station circle, the situation may take ugly turn.
He feared that non-action on part of administration may lead to ethnic clashes and it may also result in killings. MLA Parmar promptly responded to Chouhan saying he need not worry as Congress now rules in the state. On this Chouhan got red faced saying this is not the issue of Congress or BJP government.
Minister Verma intervened saying the issue will be considered seriously. He also cautioned Chouhan and other members not to politicise the issues and should rather behave properly in the DPC meetings.
