LUDHIANA: Irked over the delay in construction of a road in Gandhi Nagar market for last over five months, Uma Dutt Sharma, husband of BJP councillor Sunita Rani sat on protest at Mayor office on Tuesday and blamed Congress government for the pathetic condition of the city especially roads. Sharma also claimed that the situation was far better during SAD-BJP regime when despite paucity of funds, development work did not stop. This however enraged Congress councillor Gagandeep Bhalla who joined the issue asking Sharma to look back into the SAD-BJP’s 10 year long tenure.It all began when the BJP leader Uma Dutt Sharma along with his son Mahesh Sharma came to meet Mayor Balkar Sandhu asking him, to begin the road construction work in the market as some shopkeepers had staged protest outside his house over this demand. Sharma sat on the ground near Mayor’ chair asking him to resolve the issue quickly. Later the BJP leader told the Mayor that a contractor who was assigned the job to construct new road in Gandhi Nagar market had uprooted the old road about five months ago without the knowledge of the councillor and the local officials. He has not started the work, which has caused resentment amongst the local residents. He rued that the residents were so troubled with the poor condition of road that they recently burnt the effigy of councillor outside their house during a protest. “There was a death in the family and it was on that very day that the residents protested outside the house, which was very painful,” he mentioned.Trying to pacify him, the mayor made him sit on the chair and conveyed that he had already asked the MC commissioner to make a payment worth Rs 10 lakh to that contractor for starting the work. The mayor also mentioned that he has asked the concerned executive engineer of building and road department to immediately blacklist the contractor and assign the work to second lowest bidder for that work.But when Mayor claimed that there was shortage of funds and it was all due to previous SAD-BJP government, Sharma who was accompanied by a few other local leaders said, “SAD-BJP regime was much matter than Congress as they were getting funds at least. Nobody is ready to give money to the Congress government which is a matter of shame for them,” he said. This angered Congress councillor Gagandeep Bhalla who was there. Tampers ran high as he asked the BJP leader to first recall tenure of former Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria, leading to heated exchanges between them. It was mayor, who finally intervened and pacified the duo.

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