Ludhiana residents take up issue of illegal gates with administration

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, July 7

Peeved at persistent failure of he Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), the Municipal Corporation and the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) to rein in influential and politically connected persons who are behind putting up illegal gates in city colonies, most of which remain closed even during daytime, senior citizens and ex-servicemen have now taken up the matter of illegal gates in the city in general and those in Rajguru Nagar colony (developed by LIT) in particular with the district authorities, demanding immediate solution to the problem.

In a communication to Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma on the matter, Col Rajinder Singh Sohi (retd), president of the Ex-Servicemen Welfare Society and a resident of Rajguru Nagar colony, said that mushrooming of illegal gates was the worst scourge infesting the city.

“Movement of residents of a public colony cannot be controlled or checked by any means as it is against national and international law. Locking or blocking of roads on whims and fancies of some people connected with political parties or other centres of power, as happens in our locality (Rajguru Nagar), is a heinous civic crime,” he observed.

He said the common man coming from villages, other cities and towns or for that matter from other parts of the city have to face a lot of harassment in finding the house they need to visit due to closed gates.

In any emergency during night hours, even residents of the colony find it difficult to get the gates open. Only those people who face such a situation could its gravity, he added.

Colonel Sohi said those who had installed the gates and blocked the roads had violated the human and legal rights of other citizens and were liable to be persecuted under Section 437 (IPC) and the officials conniving with them under Section 217.

He has also cited orders of the MC issued on May 18, 2011, which had prescribed timings for closure of the gates installed in residential colonies from 10 pm to 5 am only, that too on the condition that there must be a watchman at the closed gates to open these as and when required so that no person coming in or going out of the colony face any inconvenience or harassment.

On behalf of the residents of the colony, especially senior citizens, Sohi has called upon the district authorities to take strict action for implementation of the orders with regard to opening and closure of the gates in the colonies and also formulate a ‘standard operating procedure’ (SOP) to check the illegal activities of politically affiliated and influential people. Violators of these SOPs be punished in accordance with the law, he demanded.

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