The Congress was on protest against the government for its anti-people policies and new taxes on Thursday too.
The programme was organised by Mahatma Gandhi Raj Lok Prashasan Sanstha, Punjab, and provided training to the councillors on things like how to deal with residents, how to listen to their woes, how to report to mayor, how to abide by the MC constitution and other issues.
“The programme was first of its kind organised by MC for its councillors. Invitation was sent to every councillor but when we called Congress members, some of them said that we don’t need to attend it as we already know everything about governance. Even after getting this response, the mayor gave instructions to call them again as it was an important training session but still the majority of Congress councillors did not come,” said a source who was present at the session.
Interestingly, some Congress councillors were seen eating lunch organised by the Sanstha at zone-A office, though they did not attend the training session.
“Out of the total 45 councillors who attended the session, not more than seven belonged to Congress,” said the source. The rest were either from the BJP, SAD or Independent.
When contacted, Hemraj Aggarwal, leader of opposition, who himself was missing from session, said, “Our old councillors have already attended such type of seminars many times and thus only new ones went to attend it. Even all the SAD-BJP councillors did not attend it.”