Vigilance sleuths raid MC office

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 2

Carrying forward the action against illegal buildings launched by Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu two weeks ago, the Vigilance team on Monday raided the office of the Municipal Corporation Jalandhar (MCJ).

A team comprising officials of the Vigilance Department at Jalandhar arrived at the office around 11 am and spent over six hours at the MC office and scrutinised records pertaining to the 93 commercial buildings identified by the Punjab Local Bodies Minister as illegal.

Scrutiny to take a few days, says SSP (Vigilance)

While the SSP (Vigilance), Diljinder Singh Dhillon, refused to reveal much information pertaining to the raid, he said the team had been assigned the task to conduct scrutiny from various aspects and it might take a few days.

“The officials were asked to carry out the investigation from various aspects as violations appear to be highly sensitive and glaring in nature. We will be able to reveal anything only after we complete our investigation,” said Dhillon, adding that though the team did not confiscate any official records, it has asked Joint Commissioner Shikha Bhagat to provide copies of the records pertaining to the 93 buildings.

It was on June 14 when Sidhu, along with his best known aide and Congress MLA from Jalandhar Cantt Pargat Singh, met at Haveli and embarked on a whirlwind tour of the city to visit over 12 illegal buildings, including under-construction unauthorised colonies. He identified over 35 illegal buildings and even held a press meet at an illegal property site.

The next morning, Congress MLAs held protests and MLA Sushil Rinku even obstructed the MC work by sitting on a JCB earth-moving machine and prevented it to demolish illegal buildings in his area. Following this, Congress MLAs, along with city Mayor Jagdish Raj Raja, met Sidhu and urged him to take a lenient view of building violations and provide a chance to review the buildings.

Agreeing to their demand, Sidhu asked the Mayor to prepare a comprehensive report and to take action at the local level. He also asked him to send the final report within the next 20 days.

The Mayor, who was unable to prepare the report with the staff crunch-hit Building Department, roped in the entire manpower of the B&R Department and even visited the buildings personally on Sunday.

However, following the delay in sending the report in the stipulated 20 days’ time, a team from the Vigilance Department on Monday raided the MC office this morning.

As per highly placed sources, the Local Bodies Minister is expected to take an exemplary action against the building violators and also conniving officials. Also, the department may blacklist architects who will be found to have got building plans approved for commercial buildings constructed illegally in the city.