Hospital running in residential area for yrs as GLADA turns a blind eye

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, October 17

The Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) has virtually turned into a ‘paper tiger’ where taking action against illegal change of land use of residential properties in its colonies is concerned.

In a classic example of ‘inaction’ against defaulting allottees, the GLADA authorities have merely issued a couple of notices and sought site report from its building branch without taking any follow-up action for a blatant violation, where a hospital was running in a residential house in Urban Estate Phase I, Dhandari Kalan, for years together.

The complaint lodged with senior GLADA officials about illegal change of land use and commercial use of residential house for running a hospital was also highlighted in these columns in March this year.

Information obtained from GLADA under the Right to Information Act about the property by an area resident, Sukhbir Sekhon, has indicated that the GLADA Estate Officer had issued at least three notices between December 2020 and August 2021 to the allottee of the residential plot — marking each one of these as ‘final notice’ — for immediate discontinuation of commercial use of the property, failing which allotment of the plot would be cancelled. But no worthwhile follow-up action was taken as per terms and conditions of the allotment as required under relevant provisions of the Punjab Regional and Development Act.

Interestingly, a report was also sought from the engineering branch twice, in November 2020 and September 2021, with regard to the complaint about a hospital having been set up in a residential area by the GLADA authorities and both times the official concerned reported that the hospital was still operational and the allottee had not discontinued the commercial use of the residential property, stated the informaion provided by GLADA under the RTI Act.

Failure in taking appropriate action by the GLADA authorities as per rules, which provide for cancellation of such allotment where change of land use was involved, gives credence to allegations levelled by the complainant that field staff of GLADA was in cahoots with the defaulting allottee, who had been given a long rope even after commercial use of residential property had been proved beyond any shadow of doubt.

In another representation to the authorities, the complainant has called for immediate action in this matter as the allottee had been given ample opportunities for personal appearance and discontinuation of commercial use of residential house.

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