Bibi Bhani Complex residents protest lack of basic amenities

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, April 21

Members of the Bibi Bhani Complex Allottees (Pidit) Association and residents of Master Gurbanta Singh Enclave held a peaceful protest-cum-meeting against the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) here today on the Bibi Bhani Complex premises, demanding redressal of their grievances.

They accused the JIT of having failed to provide them basic amenities at the complex even after seven years.

The allottees of Bibi Bhani, who had taken the possession from the JIT in 2018 and 2017, alleged that they had been given possession of the flats fraudulently.

They said the JIT, at the time of giving the possession, assured that the water supply, proper roads and other facilities had been provided, however, the state of affairs of the site reflects a poor picture as there is no provision of water and sewerage till date.

Darshan Singh Ahuja, president of the Bibi Bhani Complex Allottees (Pidit) Association, said, “The protest-cum-meeting was held in order to find a solution to the complaints of the allottees, who had been living in such a miserable condition. Also, there are many allottees, who had neither received possession nor the refund,” he said.

He said those who had taken the possession belong to economically weaker section and were uneducated, and thus, got influenced by JIT officials, who without letting them make a visit to the complex, made them sign on the possession letters.

Ahuja added that there had been 25 families living in Bibi Bhani Complex while more than 50 allottees had not received the possession and had already filed their complaints against the trust with the consumer forum.

“In the meeting, we decided that all those already living there would also file a case against the JIT for deficiency in service in the consumer forum and would seek full refund of the amount they invested in the JIT flat scheme,” he added.

Residents of Master Gurbanta Singh Enclave also rued lack of basic amenities at their complex.

KL Arora, secretary, coordination, Gurbanta Singh Enclave, said, “JIT officials never stay true to their words. They had been fooling residents of Indrapuram for many years. There are a total of 888 flats in our area. The JIT had promised us separate entrance of 40-ft wide road, but just 11-ft road was given, which too is now blocked. We had been tired of complaining to the officials, but have received no response so far.”