Three Fatehgarh Churian women councillors get notices

The local bodies department has issued showcause notices to the three women councillors of the Fatehgarh Churian municipal council, who reportedly remained absent during the meetings of council and on their behalf, their husbands were attending the meetings.

In the show-cause notice dated November 24, local bodies department’s principal secretary A Venu Prasad has asked the SAD councillors— Harkirat Kaur, Kamlesh and Pratibha Rani— why action should not be taken against them for sending their husbands to attend meetings of the House on their behalf. The councillors have been asked to submit their replies within 21 days. A copy of the notice is available with HT.

A notice was also issued to municipal council president Baljit Singh Chauhan and executive officer Bhupinder Singh asking them why they did not take notice of the matter which has been going on for nearly three years.

The council, formed in March 2015, has a strength of 13 members, out of which ten are Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) councillors and three Congress councillors.

Terming the development as ‘political vendetta’, the SAD councillors claimed that they were being targeted and alleged that it is being done to disqualify them and dissolve the council, ruled by the SAD.

Cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, who is also the sitting MLA from Fatehgarh Churian, is behind the conspiracy, they alleged.

Sources in the council said the councillors are paid ₹500 for every house meeting they attend and the husbands of these three councillors used to fake the signatures of their wives to claim the money.

IT IS LEARNT THAT THEIR HUSBANDS’ WERE REPRESENTING ON THEIR BEHALF AT THE MEETINGS