Allottees up in arm against JIT over Rs 70 cr payment

The Joint Action Committee of allottees of various schemes of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust is up in arms against the state government for not returning Rs 70 crore to them despite consumer court orders in their favour.

Office-bearers of the Surya Enclave Extension Welfare Society, Bibi Bhani Complex Allottees Association, Indrapuram Flat Owners Welfare and Development Society and Master Gurbanta Singh Enclave Society said after the favourable orders from the court, 250 executions were also being pursued in various courts, still JIT officials had not returned their dues. They alleged that the Trust need to pay Rs 7 crore annually as interest on these dues.

Jatinder Mohan Sharma, president of the Surya Enclave Extension Welfare Society, said, "We received payments of about Rs 28 crore in Covid times. The Trust then owed Rs 110 crore to the banks, which was cleared by borrowing Rs 50 crore each from the Amritsar and Ludhiana Improvement Trusts. Even in the present scenario, the Trust can borrow and refund the amounts of allottees. The Trust has properties worth crores at its disposal which can be auctioned to clear the accrued amounts".

Darshan Singh, president of the Bibi Bhani Complex Allottees Association, said, "The courts have issued several non-bailable warrants against Trust officials, but to no avail. Many allottees have expired and their widows are compelled to run from pillar and post to get the amount. They have given all their life's savings to the Trust. All of us, who are allottees from 2006 to 2106, are forced to wait endlessly for our payments, inspite of the court orders which is indeed shameful."

They further said many bank accounts of the JIT have been attached as per the court orders. "We appeal to the government to refund our amounts at the earliest", the allottees have said.

They have also flagged that another serious concern is the files going missing in the JIT office. "It takes many days to locate every file. We had pinned high hopes on the Aam Aadmi Party for redressal of our grievances", said Revant Behl, secretary, Surya Enclave Extension Welfare Society.