File reply to complaint by wife of Army veteran, Lokayukta tells SDM

Nurpur, March 9

The Lokayukta, Shimla, yesterday took cognisance of a complaint submitted online by Raksha Devi, wife of former Army Havildar Teja Singh of Balah-Bhedkhud village in Jawali subdivision of Kangra district, and heard her grievance in the camp court here.

The Lokayukta reportedly directed the SDM, Jawali, to submit his reply to the woman’s complaint and asked the complainant to submit all documents in support of her complaint on the next hearing on May 30.

In her complaint, Raksha Devi has alleged that though the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) through the Competent Authority Land Acquisition-cum-SDM, Jawali, had awarded Rs 64.14 lakh compensation for her buildings in March 2022, she did not get it despite several pleas made to the SDM.

The compensation award was issued for her shops and a house that the NHAI acquired for the Pathankot-Mandi national highway widening project. The Tribune had also highlighted the plight of the woman in these columns on February 23. The aggrieved woman in her online complaint had also threatened to end her life along with her two children if the state government authorities did not release her compensation award.

Local social activist Rajesh Pathania and Bhumi Adhigrahan Prabhavit Manch state president BR Kaundal are fighting for the grant of compensation to Raksha Devi.

The Lokayukta had summoned the SDM, Jawali, and Revenue Department officials and told them to be present in the court camp at Nurpur. The aggrieved woman pleaded before the Lokayukta that the SDM had released compensation to other people whose structures were also acquired by the NHAI for the road widening project while she did not get it.

She lamented that although the title of her structural property was undisputed, the SDM, Jawali, had withheld her compensation award. She submitted her offline complaint to the Lokayukta through an attested affidavit.