Congress extends support to people facing eviction

Our Correspondent
Zirakpur, October 11 

Following demolition of the nine commercial establishments by the Zirakpur Municipal Council (MC) in Bhabat village on October 8, the PPCC general secretary, Deepinder Singh Dhillon, on Thursday extended his support to residents, who had received eviction notices. The Congress would fight for them, he said.

Led by Dhillon, owners of shops that were demolished along with residents of Bhabat village submitted a representation to the Mohali Deputy Commissioner, Gurpreet Kaur Sapra, for stopping the administration’s demolition drive as the Zirakpur MC had not followed the norms under the Work of Defence Act, 1903. 

In a representation to the DC, shop owners and residents stated that the construction otherwise was not illegal as site plans were duly approved by the competent authority and the Zirakpur MC office. 

There was nothing for the authority to draw its power under the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911, to declare the construction as illegal, they added.

The representation further states that: “Until and unless proper compensation is paid as required by way of the proceedings as provided under the Act of 1903 and the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, no proceedings can be initiated so as to either demolish or vacate property owned and possessed by owners.”

Residents rued that the drive would make them homeless, adding that to live was their fundamental right.

After the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Zirakpur MC launched a demolition drive against illegal shops that had come up in violation of the periphery of the IAF high ground boundary wall at Bhabat village in Zirakpur.

Acting on the High Court order, the enforcement wing of the MC issued as many as 300 eviction notices to residents. These notices triggered panic among residents. Leaders of the SAD-BJP and the Congress extended their support to villagers facing eviction.

The drive also hit a roadblock in the Bhabat area, where shopkeepers and some local residents, whose shops and houses were coming under the hammer of the demolition squad, came on roads to protest against the administration’s move. 

Free legal desk set up at Bhabat village

The PPCC general secretary, Deepinder Singh Dhillon, has set up a free legal aid desk to provide assistance to residents of Bhabat village, who have received eviction notice from the MC. As many as 75 residents approached the legal desk to help them file their replies to the MC for seeking one month’s time and not to go ahead with the demolition drive as they had invested their hard-earned money in purchasing and constructing the property. These structures could not be brought down as majority of them had been built after taking the MC’s approval.