Bilaspur residents upset over move to regularise illegal buildings

Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 25

Residents of Bilaspur are upset over the reported move of the state government to regularise the unauthorised buildings constructed by people on the land allotted to Bhakra Dam oustees.

The oustees were given 9 X 18 feet kiosks as emergency measure in 1977 but most of them sold these The purchasers not only built concrete buildings but also encroached the adjoining land.

The old Bilaspur town was submerged in Bhakra Dam and new Bilaspur was developed as a planned city but now it is being converted into a concrete jungle. Himachal High Court had ordered removal of all encroachments and illegal structures. However, the government and Municipal Council are dithering over compliance of the HC orders, Kuldeep Chandel, one of the complainants said.

The High Court had passed the orders on April 5, 2010 and Deputy Commissioner, Bilaspur held a meeting of concerned officers on August 10, 2010 for implementing the orders and it was decided at the meeting that Superintending Engineer would get the encroachments removed from the acquired width while Municipal Council would clear the encroachment on link roads in the town.

However, no action was taken due to political reasons and the previous Congress government assured that encroachments would be regularised. Even after change in the government, the administration was not taking any action to remove the encroachments and reports suggest that there is no change in the stand of the government, Chandel said adding that regularisation of encroachments on “as is, where is” basis would spell doom for the town and genuine citizens would suffer and face avoidable inconvenience.

The Himachal High Court has already struck down the clause in “Town and Country Planning Act”, providing for regularising all illegal structures on “as is where is” basis but the defaulters have not lost hopes and building pressure on the government to come to their rescue and “find out some way” to bail them out.