GLADA allots 50 MIG flats to anti-Sikh riot victims

Our Correspondent

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Ludhiana, July 16

The Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) today allotted 50 MIG flats to the victims of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 through a draw of lots held in the presence of a large number of applicants. In all there were 3,452 eligible applicants from across the state who were included in the draw.

Although the draw, carried out in the presence of Additional Chief Administrator of GLADA Neeru Katyal Gupta and other senior officials, went on smoothly, a section of riot victims objected to the inclusion of riot victims from all over the state in the allotment of residential flats in Ludhiana.

Kartar Singh Patna, chairman of the Sikh Migrants Welfare Board, said the very purpose of the government towards the rehabilitation of victims of the anti-Sikh riots had been defeated by the policy on allotment of residential flats to the applicants at places other than where those were settled.

“What would the riot victims or members of their families do with a flat in Ludhiana if they are settled in Amritsar, Gurdaspur or such faraway places,” he asked, adding that as per the policy laid down by the government, the allottees (riot victims) would not be able to sell or rent out these flats since these were being allotted exclusively for their own residential use.

Amanpreet Singh Manchanda, a functionary of the International Human Rights Organisation, said certain self-styled leaders of riot victims were running a racket of illegal sale and transfer of flats allotted to riot victims while anti-social elements patronised by these leaders were in the “lucrative” business of forcibly taking possession of residential flats lying vacant and then selling these properties at a premium. “Collusion of certain GLADA employees in this racket could not be ruled out,” he added.

Maintaining that the policy of allotment of flats to riot victims from out of a common pool (at places other than where they were settled) was faulty, Manchanda said the fact that more than 60 per cent of 176 flats earlier allotted by GLADA to riot victims in Sector 32 on Chandigarh Road had been illegally transferred to other persons by the allottees was ample proof that the relief and rehabilitation measures were not reaching the intended beneficiaries.

Neeru Katyal Gupta, however, asserted that the allotment of flats had been made strictly as per the policy laid down by the government and directions issued by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in this regard.