Mohali is now a Municipal Corporation

The Punjab government issued a formal notification this evening to upgrade the status of the present civic body to that of a municipal corporation with immediate effect but without effecting any change in its present limits. With this,the present Class-A Mohali Municipal Council,established in 1984,stands dissolved permanently,leaving all its 30 elected councillors,including president Rajinder Rana and vice-presidents Amrik Singh and Harpal Singh dismissed from office. This development comes almost eight months before the end of their five-year term due in August.

Confirming this,a senior government official told Newsline that a Commissioner is likely to be posted for the Mohali Municipal Corporation in a day or two. The Commissioner will run the day-to-day affairs of the corporation till the new elected body comes into being,which is likely to take six-eight months.

Aggrieved at the turn of events,the Congress-led ruling group in the dissolved civic body has announced that it will move the Punjab and Haryana High Court against what it termed “gross injustice”. “Dissolving the elected body before the end of its five-year term is a mockery of the law and murder of democracy. It has been done with the sole motive of dislodging the Congress-led civic body and grabbing control over it through unfair means,” said local Congress MLA Balbir Sidhu,who was also ex-officio member of the civic body,in reaction to the formation of the municipal corporation.

Clarifying that the Congress is not against the formation of the municipal corporation,Sidhu said,“If the government was sincere in its plan,it would have waited till August when the present civic body’s term was due to expire. Since the Akalis’ efforts of to take control of the Mohali civic body had all failed,they used this last resort to dissolve the Municipal Council in an illegal manner.”

“Now,with the government’s foul play coming to the fore,we have been left with no option but to move the court of law seeking a stay on the government notification,” declared the Opposition legislator,hoping for instant relief in the wake of the recent quashing of the Panchkula Municipal Corporation notification.

Commenting on the unanimous resolution adopted by the Municipal Council last October seeking corporation status,Sidhu accused the government of “violating” that resolution as well. “We had desired that the entire Mohali sub-division area would be included in the Municipal Corporation. But it has been formed with the present limits only,which is again cheating with elected public representatives,” the MLA argued.