Two days after the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh terminated the extension given to M/s Lion Services Ltd, engaged in providing sanitation services in the southern sectors of Chandigarh, a major controversy has erupted, with many councillors deciding to boycott the next House meeting of the Municipal Corporation, alleging that officers, including the Commissioner, are ignoring resolutions passed by the House.
The decision to boycott the House meeting was taken during a meeting held at the office of the Mayor at the Municipal Corporation today, which was attended by around 16 councillors from the Congress and BJP. However, no councillor from the AAP attended the meeting.
Jasbir Singh Bunty, Congress councillor, said that the House had passed a resolution for allotting the tender to a company that quoted the lowest rates for providing sanitation services in Sectors 31 to 50, 61 and 63, when the officers brought the agenda before the House. However, despite the resolution, the Commissioner decided to terminate the extension and also gave his dissent note over the resolution.
Kanwarjeet Singh Rana, BJP councillor, said that the Commissioner had ignored the voices of all councillors, who are elected representatives. In protest against his decision, they have decided not to attend the next meetings of the Finance and Contract Committee and the General House meeting. He said they would not attend any meeting till the Commissioner remains in his post.
Bunty said the MC had been giving extensions to the company on a regular basis due to the non-finalisation of the tender floated after the contract with the company expired last year.
He said they are in favour of giving the contract to any company. They are protesting only against the lack of respect for the resolution passed unanimously by the House.
On the other hand, Hardeep Singh, AAP councillor, said no AAP councillor attended the meeting and that they are fully in support of the decision taken by the Commissioner.
The contract of the company was initially extended in September 2025 for three months, and after that, it was further extended regularly on the plea of ensuring uninterrupted sanitation services in the southern sectors of Chandigarh and considering the time required to complete the new tender process and allot the work to the successful bidder.
The company was awarded the contract in 2017. Since then, the same company has been carrying out the work. The corporation pays the company approximately Rs 50 crore annually (around Rs 4 crore every month) for sanitation work.
When the agenda giving information regarding the status of the tender process was placed before the last House meeting, many councillors favoured giving the contract to the same company, which had quoted the lowest rate. However, the officers were not in favour of allotting the tender as the company failed to justify the queries sent to it. The officers claimed that the bid quoted by the company was still on the higher side.
When contacted, Saurabh Joshi, Mayor, said the councillors met in the morning and raised their issues. He said he had apprised the concerned authorities of their concerns and was in discussion with all of them to resolve the issue.
