Own ward in shatters, SAD councillor leads cleanliness drive in Leisure Valley.

Indian Express: ludhiana: Sunday, 19 October 2014.

The morning walkers at the Leisure Valley, Sarabha Nagar were in for a surprise on Saturday morning when Akali Dal councillor Tanvir Singh Dhaliwal entered the park with broom in his hand and with a team of around 50 workers. Also followed were JCB machines and trolleys to lift the garbage.

Dhaliwal, however, led the cleanliness drive in the area of his colleague Bhupinder Singh Bhinda, also an Akali Dal councillor who was nowhere to be seen though.

Dhaliwal alleged that despite Leisure Valley being in the neighborhood of the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation, the morning workers faced inconvenience on a daily basis related to uncleanliness and unhygienic conditions that prevail in the valley.

It is to be noted that despite the valley being under the direct maintenance of Ludhiana MC and six gardeners on duty for its upkeep, MC failed to maintain the valley. Untrimmed grasses, trees, heaps of garbage, non functional fountains, stained boundary walls etc present picture of utter neglect at Leisure Valley where hundreds of morning walkers come daily.

However, the picture of Dhaliwal’s own ward is nowhere appreciable either. Unauthorised garbage dumps near Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar in ward number 59 is a major problem. Recently, in an RTI reply to a city resident, who requested anonymity, MC said that Rs 6.80 lakh were spent to construct three walls around a dump in Dhaliwal’s ward.

The applicant told Ludhiana Newsline, “The authorities didn’t lift garbage in area for more than 10 days. It is very easy to hold a broom and go to park and show how much you care for people but the ground reality is where we live. Despite repeated requests to Dhaliwal to get unauthorized dumps lifted from area, our plea has never been heard.”

On other hand, Dhaliwal said that his sole motive was to clean the area. “I am going to request the Mayor to form park management committee to maintain Leisure Valley. Despite the Munucipal Corporation office being in close vicinity, it is in a pathetic state. Walkers from our area were complaining so we decided to clean the park.”