27 Latifpura families faced demolition, except for one

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, December 23

Even as several families have gone shelterless owing to demolition of their houses at Latifpura, one of them managed to escape as it had already obtained a stay on the matter from the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

This property belongs to Bawa Building Materials and falls much away from the site of the demolition drive on the rear side of the houses in front of which dharna is being organised. The matter came to light in a reply filed by the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) while giving a compliance report in the contempt of court petition filed in the High Court over the non-execution of demolition orders passed way back in 2012 against 27 persons.

“All encroachments stand removed but one encroachment of Bawa Building Material could not be removed as there is a stay order dated November 27, 2017 passed by the High Court… Gursharan Singh, a proprieter of Bawa Building Materials, passed away and the appeal was filed by his widow Amarjit Kaur against an order of July 2015 in favour of the JIT,” the Trust said in its reply.

At the site, two houses and some shops can be seen lying untouched by the JIT since December 9 demolition action. An occupant of the house said: “The JIT teams had wrongly come to our place that day but when we showed our stay orders, they were convinced.”

Chairman of JIT Jagtar Singh Sanghera, when contacted, confirmed that one property had to be exempt during the demolition. “Since they showed us the stay order, we got the same verified and could not demolish it.”

Going by the present scene at the site, the road coming from Gol Market side towards Model Town does not still seem to be clear of all encroachments for the JIT to be able to construct a 120 feet road there as per the proposal.