Congress councillor and municipal corporation finance panel member Gaurav Bhatti on Monday mounted a fresh challenge to the proposed ₹ 1,400-crore solid waste management project as he turned up at the mayor’s residence with a cartload of garbage and launched an indefinite sit-in demanding withdrawal of the proposal.
I won’t let it pass,” he said. “I will keep protesting until this proposal is taken back. The proposal was not cleared at Monday’s meeting, while Thursday’s meeting ended without a consensus among the committee members.
Bhatti walked barefoot for nearly 12 km from his office to the mayor’s residence in Rose Garden before beginning the protest. He also questioned the financial viability of a project estimated to cost more than ₹ 1,400 crore, saying the Municipal Corporation could not afford such a large expenditure.
He said he would continue the agitation until the proposal was withdrawn. The proposed system could leave a large section of these workers without a livelihood, according to Bhatti. The dispute over the project had already come to a head during meetings of the Finance and Contracts Committee (F&CC) on Monday and Thursday last week.
Bhatti disputed the Mayor’s contention, saying only three of the five F&CC members were present at Thursday’s meeting, while the Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor were absent. He argued that since a numerical majority of the full five-member committee had not approved the proposal, it could not be taken forward to the House.
Mayor Inderjit Kaur maintained that she had the majority support in the F&CC and decided to place the proposal before the municipal corporation House for a vote. She was unavailable for comment on Monday, while her office said she was busy resolving the standoff over the proposal.
