MC takes back possession of property after 17 yrs

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 15

It was a day of historic feat for the Municipal Corporation today. After having contested the case for as many as 17 years in various courts, the civic body today took back the possession of a huge chunk of property that it owned, two roads and a public park, in the posh Civil Lines area. The property had been allegedly annexed by owners of Hotel Skylark, one of the prime and old hotels of the city.

HC had decided case over four months ago

The roads had been so well amalgamated in the hotel property that these fell within its compound. While a 24-ft wide road on the rear side of the main hotel building was being used as a tiled track to cross over to the garden area for parties in the backyard, the 10-ft wide road and a huge park on the west side of the hotel were being used as a parking lot. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had decided the case in the favour of the MC on May 29, 2018, but physical possession was finally taken after over four months.

Today, officials from the Town Planning Department, who had about two months ago dismantled the portion of a wall and broken the rear gate (which is the access to the 24-ft wide road), took complete possession of the properties. A nearly 150-metre-long track connecting the back gate on the west side of the hotel to another back gate on the east side was razed using a JCB machine to take access of the road. The encroachments, including on the east side and an iron gate that came on the way, were also removed.

Afterwards, the 10-ft road on the parking lot site was demarcated. With a red ink, a marking was done on the floor which read: “10-feet Street”. The park area was then fenced by the officials at the site.

Cong leaders support operation

While Congress leaders have been stalling demolitions by the MC in the city, it was for the first time that they supported it.

Mayor Jagdish Raja, MLA, Jalandhar (Central), Rajinder Beri, and councillor Jasleen Sethi got the demolition done in their presence. Residents of the Civil Lines Welfare Society, who had been pushing the case, today sat on a dharna outside the hotel demanding action. Members Santokh Singh, Rajeev Sood, Davinder Pal Singh and Varun Prashar said they had been consistently approaching the MC to take possession of the properties and they had been assured that it would be done today, hence they chose to squat outside the hotel this morning.

It was way back in 2001 that the MC officials had started giving notices to the hotel to vacate the occupied land but the owners went to courts taking a plea that they had deposited a compounding fee of Rs 8.99 lakh to the Municipal Town Planner on May 29, 2001. While the owners produced a copy of the memo, they failed to produce its complete copy, along with the layout plan. The matter from the lower court was decided against the hotel owner, who went for a civil revision with the Punjab and Haryana High Court last year. The high court had sought the title deed of the allegedly encroached area from the owner, which they again failed to produce.

The court orders read, “From the memo, it cannot be held that for which encroachment this amount has been taken. The encroachment on the public land, road or park, cannot be regularised as per law”.

SAD leaders take sides with hotelier

This is the first major MC action that has come up since Mayor Jagdish Raja took over in January this year. Just as five-hour long action had begun this morning, SAD leaders, including former MLA Sarabjeet Makkar, district Youth Akali Dal president Sukhminder Rajpal and another SAD leader Iqbal Singh Dhindsa came to the spot and took sides with the hotelier. While the hotelier himself was not present, his son-in-law Harjap Singh repeatedly confronted the MC team that had come for action.

The welfare society of the residents played a major role in the taking over of the huge property of the MC that is worth crores of rupees.

The residents said: “We are feeling relieved that our long-pending demand has finally been fulfilled and the public places in our colony which had been encroached upon for nearly two decades will finally be used by residents for whom these were actually meant”.

Rajeev Sood, the secretary of the society, said he had been witnessing the problem for long.

“Finally, the issue has been resolved,” he said.

Councillor Jasleen Sethi said she had warned the officials that if there would be no action today, she would take up the matter in the forthcoming MC House meeting.

ATP Lakhbir Singh, who led the demolition drive, said earlier they had gone to the spot on June 11. The hotel owners had then ensured that they would remove the gates and other structures on their own.

“But even after four months, they failed to act. The owners, instead, again approached the lower court with a fresh petition but have so far not got any relief,” he said.