Civic body closes its eyes to illegal buildings mushrooming in city, this time in Zone C

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, February 24

Blame it on political interference at the highest level or connivance of the field staff of the building branch of the Municipal Corporation, commercial buildings are coming up in a big way in blatant violation of building bylaws in almost all parts of the city.

Even though the MC top brass claims to have given a dressing down to the supervisory officials, the fact remains that the unholy nexus of unscrupulous builders and certain ‘corrupt’ employees of the civic body rules the roost at least for the time being.

In a complaint lodged with the Principal Secretary, Local Government, Punjab, and the Chief Vigilance Officer, Local Government, Punjab, city-based RTI activist Simranpal Singh Kalsi and Paramjit Singh said commercial buildings were being constructed in localities of Zone C — Guru Arjun Dev Nagar, Kot Mangal Singh, Bhagwan Chowk Janta Nagar and SAS Nagar — all falling in Ward No 70, while both the field staff and supervisory officials of building branch were closing their eyes to the blatant violations.

The complainants said such glaring violations of the building bylaws were not possible without the active connivance of the MC staff as no action, worth the name, had apparently been taken against violators. Further, they said since the ward concerned was represented by City Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria, political interference in unlawful building activities could not be ruled out.

Highly placed sources in the MC revealed that certain unscrupulous employees in the building branch have made unlawful building activity in their respective areas a ‘very lucrative’ business, while some others act as go between to facilitate the construction of illegal buildings obviously for a price. That the booty is shared proportionately between the ‘conspirators’ is more than obvious. Sources said due to acute shortage of regular staff in the building branch, assistant town planners (ATPs) and building inspectors were being appointed on contract basis.

“More often than not such contractual employees have little or no accountability which has further compounded the situation,” they said.

Senior Town Planner (STP) Kamaljit Kaur said complaints of illegal buildings being constructed in Zone C had come to her notice. “A written report has been sought from the ATP in charge of the zone and stern action, as per law, including demolition of the non-compoundable violations, will be taken against the owners,” she said.