Residents slam JIT for inaction

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, June 22

The Jalandhar Improvement Trust, which has been facing turmoil over the issue of Bibi Bhani Complex LIG flats, has been lending a deaf ear to pleas of Surya Enclave Extension residents.

Ever since a ‘development scheme’ was framed by the MC and JIT in 2011 for the allotment of residential plots in Surya Enclave Extension expanded in nearly 94.97 acres, the area of has been reduced to a mere garbage dump. According to a resident, Manohar Lal Sehgal, several requests were made to officials of MC, JIT and even Local Bodies Minister Navjot Sidhu regarding the garbage and debris being thrown into the area and the non-development of the scheme, but no action has been taken yet.

“I had also asked the officials of JIT to place notice boards in the area declaring it a no dumping zone, but no banner or boards have been placed so far. Also, there is no water and sewerage system, no electricity and even roads are also not constructed in the area,” said Sehgal, adding that the JIT had even failed to provide a tube well connection in the area.

Garbage dealers collecting waste from all major hotels and restaurants are throwing it here on vacant plots to be segregated later by rag pickers in the area. “The area has become a house for mosquitoes and other insects. Children who play outside homes are prone to harmful diseases,” said Jitendra Sharma resident of the Surya Enclave Extension.

Hitesh Aggarwal, Chief Sanitary Inspector of the district said, “The MC is dealing with the case and the work is in process. We have already taken the estimates, though the garbage dumped in the area is in bulk and we require nearly 20 to 25 JCB machines. The area would probably get clear by the end of the next month.”

Moreover, plot owners had recently approached officials of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust, but the authorities failed to provide any respite. They have asked for the removal of garbage lying in the area and an interest waiver on the pending EMIS on the plots, but the JIT has refused to do so and instead, has offered them a waiver of non-construction charges levied on plots, claimed, Sehgal, president of the Surya Extension Welfare Society.

JIT Executive Officer Vikram Kumar said, “Although we are already laying water supply lines in the area and work of laying sewerage lines in the colony is in process,” said Kumar. He also claimed that the process for road construction had been started and tenders for the provision of street lights had been approved. Along with that, the payments to the allottees that were left for possession had been made just two or three days back and that the other development works in the colony were in progress, he added.