UT stops construction near Badal’s house

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 11

The Estate Office and the Municipal Corporation today stopped labourers from building a toilet, suspected to be an unauthorised construction, abutting the house of former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s family, following inquiries in this regard by Chandigarh Tribune.

Sources said the toilet was being constructed on the green belt near House No. 256-257 in Sector 9 which belongs to Badal’s family.

When this correspondent reached the spot, the construction of the toilet was going on in the green belt. Two security men sitting outside the house confirmed that it belonged to Badal’s family.

The labourers engaged in the construction of the toilet said they were told to construct the toilet by the contractor, who is also renovating the house. One of the labourers said they were not constructing a new toilet. A toilet already existed there for years but its walls were damaged by the roots of a tree. The old toilet structure was demolished and a new one was being constructed in the same place.

When the issue was brought to the notice of Deputy Commissioner Mandeep Singh Brar and Municipal Commissioner KK Yadav, the teams of the departments concerned reached the site and got the construction work stopped. One of the officials of the Estate Office, who reached the spot, said they asked the labourers to immediately stop work as they failed to show any permission for raising the structure. The MC team asked the labourers not to carry out further construction.

According to law, no construction on government land and in a green belt can be taken up without the approval of the Chief Architect Office of the Chandigarh Administration. Kapil Setia, Chief Architect, also denied any knowledge of such permission for the particular site.