Sector 20 residents start 5-day protest against Panchkula MC

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, December 18

The Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) of Sector 20 today began its five-day protest against the Municipal Corporation for making the sector parking a paid facility and failing to address persistent civic issues, including damaging a green belt having more than 3,000 trees.

“The civic body should withdraw the anti-public decision of starting paid-parking in the Sector 20 market. The sector was developed with a ‘no profit, no loss’ policy and we have already paid for all common areas. Hence, the corporation has no right to impose paid-parking in our sector,” said KK Jindal, president of the RWA.

Jindal added that the green belt was lungs of the sector but the administration was adamant on destroying it to fulfil motives of their political bosses.

On the issue of enhancement, Jindal said the Haryana Shahri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) had failed to implement the uniform policy of the state government to calculate enhancement even two years after its introduction in 2019.

Former Mayor Upinder Kaur Ahluwalia also extended her support to the protest.

Avinash Malik, the general secretary of the area RWA, said the government had allotted the land to the societies in this sector at the rate of Rs1,206 per sq m whereas it was approved for Rs892 per sq m, thus overcharging Rs314 per sq m. He added that despite losing a number of legal cases in arbitration, the HSVP failed to ensure compliance of the orders.

“The HSVP is looting the sector residents mentally and economically for the past 20 years,” he said.