Guide maps finally removed as JDA faces heat from Urban Estate residents
The long-standing dispute over guide maps in Urban Estate, Phase-1, here has been resolved as the Jalandhar Development Authority (JDA) has finally removed these.
The move comes after persistent complaints from residents about discrepancies in the displayed maps, which contradicted the approved 2011 layout plan.
Residents had been raising objections for years, pointing out that the guide maps depicted a road and green belt behind house number 1 to 8.
However, as per the official layout plan with the JDA, the area in question — spanning 1,934 square yards — was designated as reserved land instead of a road. The matter escalated further when it was revealed (in RTIs filed by residents) that this land had been exchanged with a trust in December 2021, allegedly without following legal procedures.
Residents had objected to the deal by writing to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). Harvinder Singh, a resident who filed an RTI in September 2022, said he initially received no response regarding the guide maps. “However, under mounting pressure from residents, the JDA eventually replied after seven months, stating that the guide map query had been forwarded to their engineering department. For the land exchange, the JDA confirmed that the land had been marked as reserved and subsequently transferred”, he said.
He further said the matter then took another turn when resident Maninder Singh filed an RTI and obtained a copy of a 2010 JDA tender, which confirmed that the guide maps had been installed by JDA itself.
"Why did the highest officials of the housing and urban department mislead us, when it was the JDA that installed the guide maps?" questioned Harvinder Singh.
Residents also demanded that if there was an official JDA tender for the maps, then there must be an associated layout plan. They said they were left stunned when the JDA authorities, on their repeated request for giving them a layout plan copy, replied that the layout plan (which shows the road) was allegedly lost. “We bought our homes based on the guide maps that clearly showed roads and a green belt behind our houses. By removing them, the JDA is doing injustice to the residents,” said Maninder Singh and Raman Munjal.
Meanwhile, JDA officials defended their decision, saying that the road and green belt shown on the guide maps were never part of the approved layout. They attributed the discrepancies to either an intentional or accidental mistake and maintained that the guide maps were removed to prevent further confusion among residents.