Chandigarh: A controversy over the proposed 20,000 litres of free water supply to city households dominated the municipal corporation’s monthly general house meeting Thursday, with Congress alleging that a Chandigarh administration letter rejecting the proposal was concealed from councillors after being returned to the civic body last year.Congress councillor Gurpreet Singh claimed the house had earlier passed a resolution seeking 20,000 litres of free water for residents, but the UT administration rejected it in 2025 and sent the file back to the MC. He alleged that the rejection letter was neither placed before the house nor shared with councillors.Calling it a deliberate attempt to bury the proposal, Singh accused the then mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla and the MC administration of keeping elected representatives in the dark and depriving city residents of the proposed benefit.Babla, however, rejected the allegations, saying the communication from the UT administration was addressed to the municipal commissioner and not to the mayor’s office.“The letter neither came to my office nor mentioned my name. I had nothing to do with it,” she said. BJP councillors and mayor Saurabh Joshi also defended Babla during the discussion.Unconvinced by the explanation, Singh entered the well of the house carrying a copy of the rejection letter and reiterated that residents had been unfairly denied a facility approved by councillors.The issue has also been raised earlier by Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari, who questioned the administration’s decision to reject the house resolution.Singh argued that any proposal returned by the administration should have been placed before the house for reconsideration. “The former mayor and the MC administration failed to do so, thereby depriving city residents of a facility approved by the house,” he said.Issue May Gain Poll TractionWith municipal elections approaching, the free water proposal is expected to emerge as a key political issue. Opposition parties have repeatedly alleged that despite being in power, the BJP failed to ensure implementation of the scheme.The proposal had received support from councillors across party lines before being forwarded to the Chandigarh administration. However, the local govt department rejected the resolution and also issued a show-cause notice to the MC, an issue that opposition parties are now using to target both the civic body and the administration.
