MC turns blind eye to illegal construction at Ram Bagh

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 5

Even after knowing about the ongoing illegal construction at Ram Bagh (Company Garden), senior officials of the Municipal Corporation (MC) have failed to take any action to stop it. The Tribune had highlighted about the fresh bid to construct a concrete structure in an illegal encroached basketball court near the ASI office in Ram Bagh on Saturday. The contractor had stopped the work on Sunday but again resumed it on Wednesday.

The contractor, who initiated the work at the site, claimed that they got approval from the ASI for further construction. He claimed that sportspersons did not have the changing room in the basketball court so it was for the good cause.

Meanwhile, a junior conservation assistant at the Archaeological Survey of India, Ram Bagh, wrote to the Civil Lines police to register a case against the contractor, who initiated illegal construction inside the protected monument — Summer Palace in Ram Bagh.

In a complaint to the SHO, Civil Lines police station, Amit Kumar, the junior conservation assistant of the ASI, said that no construction was allowed in the prohibited area within 100 metre from the protected site. Officials of the ASI have intimated to senior MC officials about the issue.

Ironically, Municipal Corporation officials did not pay heed to the official intimation of the ASI officers. When attempted to contact MCCommissioner Komal Mittal, she did not respond to the repeated phone calls. While an official of the MC stated that the structure would be demolished tomorrow.

There are several illegal courts inside the protected monument. Even after signing a memorandum of understanding with the ASI to eliminate all these structures, the MC did not take any action. Moreover, an NGO, being run by leader of opposition in the MC House, has encroached half-acre land to cultivate vegetables.