Grace under pressure

Punjab: Over 100 urban colonies in Ludhiana gear up for polls too Hoardings can be seen all around and meetings are being held in elaborate manner. "People in colones hardly communicate with each other on a daily basis unlike villages. Hence extra effort is needed to reach out to them," says Kamal Verma, who is contesting for the post of panch from Ward 9 of Ranchi Colony on Ferozepur Road, adding they, however, are not eligible for funds under various schemes meant for rural areas. "As ours is not a typical village with pond, fields or pasture land. Our needs are different." This area comes under Threeke village, which no longer has any farm land, but colonies like Ghumman Colony, Osho Garden, Harnam Nagar, Jagjit Nagar etc. Over the time, the villagers have sold their land and these have been developed as private colonies. Though a notification was issued regarding inclusion of 99 village panchayats in Ludhiana Municipal Corporation had been approved by the erstwhile Punjab government on January 2, 2017, ahead of Assembly polls, it still hangs fire due to change in regime. Verma says in papers, they are still part of village panchayats. "Hence, we have no choice but to contest the polls," he says, adding for the post of sarpanch, four contestants are fighting from the village. "Two are supported by the Congress and two others are Independent. This village has nearly 3,300 voters," he says. Hariom Sharma, former sarpanch of New Rajguru Nagar from Shiromani Akali Dal, says this colony, which is a village in land records, has a mall, five star hotel, besides many others, and markets. "So in no sense it is a village. We find a lot of problem in getting works done. During my term, I got sewer lines laid for a total cost of Rs 2.2 crore with voluntary contributions of Rs 20,000 each house and got it connected with the MC supply line. It is high time that colonies need to be part of MC, rather than villages," he says, adding this time, the ward has been reserved for women. "Our party has not fielded any sarpanch candidate this time. Two Congress candidates Jagdish Kaur Sawaddi and Gurpreet Kaur are pitted against each other in a colony of over 5,000 voters," he says. Latest Videos A notification regarding inclusion of 99 village panchayats in the MC had been approved by erstwhile Punjab government on January 2, 2017, ahead of Assembly polls. However on January 6, 2017, code of conduct had been implemented, due to which this notification went in cold storage and nothing has happened even after around two years of formation of the Congress government. Darshan Singh Shivalik, former SAD MLA of Dakha, says he had raised this matter in the municipal corporation during his 2012-2017 term that the MC limit be increased by 1-km radius due to expansion of the city. "I also got Rs 100 crore fund approved for village panchayats under a World Bank scheme, but it is not being utilised by the Congress government for want of adding their own share. This fund can be used to lay water supply and sewer lines, for street lights and many other amenities of the colonies," he says. Kuldeep Singh Vaid, MLA of Gill constituency, while talking with The Indian Express agrees with the problem of the village panchayats: "As many as 39 panchayats come in my area only. I have raised the issue with Ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu. The matter is before the Punjab government to get the notification implemented. Panchayat funds alone are not enough to meet the development needs of the urban colonies," he says. Dailyhunthttp://www.penninetroutfarmandfishery.co.uk/UserProfile/tabid/61/userId/1768009/Default.aspx

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