Terror-affected family was ‘forcefully’ evicted from flat alloted to Khushbir

 GS Paul

Amritsar, April 19 

A fresh controversy, this time over its occupation, has arisen out of the announcement of a flat to be allotted to Asiad silver medallist Khushbir Kaur.

With a view to renovate this 1,000 sq feet higher income group (HIG) flat No. 907/C at Ranjit Avenue, the officials of the Amritsar Development Authority (a subsidiary of PUDA) today broke the seal and removed the household articles lying in it, which included refrigerator, ACs, beds, washing machine, fans, cupboards, kitchenware and bags. 

A family of four, claiming themselves to be affected by terrorism, said they lived in the flat since 2001 till they “forcefully evicted” in July 2014. “I had challenged the eviction in the High Court on July 31. The court marked it to the Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner on November 18. The same day, it was farwarded to the Amritsar DC, who in turn referred it to the SDM, Ajnala, for scrutinisation on November 25. Ever since, the file has not moved. How can the Amritsra Development Authority (ADA) break the seal of an under consideration property and took away all our belongings. Their move on a non-working day itself speaks a lot how controversial the move is," said Harjinder Singh, the family head. 

Although the government had announced an MIG (mid-income group) flat for the athlete's family on April 15, the authorities identified this HIG flat the next day as no MIG flat was available.

Sandeep Rishi, ADA Chief Administrator, said the possession of the flat was with PUDA since July 25, 2014, and that it was “illegally occupied” by Harjinder. 

"As per law, we have removed the articles lying in the flat as it needed renovation before handing it over to the athlete's family. Despite our repeated communication, Harjinder never bothered to take out his belongings, so we had to do it on our own. A list of articles has been prepared in the presence of Tehsildar and Harjinder can claim them anytime by furnishing requisite official formalities," he said. 

Rishi said the case with the Divisional Commissioner, Jalandhar, was about the authenticity of the identification of the Red Card (granted to terrorism-affected families) issued in the name of Harjinder Singh, on the basis of which he had claimed the flat.