Trouble brewing for MC in HC

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, July 14

Even though the Municipal Corporation is facing a contempt petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court for its inaction against removal of thousands of permanent encroachments all across the city, nothing worthwhile has been done towards this end at least during the past three years. And that is absolutely official, based on information provided by the MC building branch under the Right to Information Act.

Responding to information sought under the RTI Act by Rohit Sabharwal, president, Council of RTI Activists, through his letter dated March 22, 2019, the assistant town planners (ATPs) of all four zones of the MC have confirmed in writing through separate letters that no permanent encroachment had been removed anywhere in the city from January 1, 2016, to date.

The sorry state of affairs with regard to removal of encroachments assumes a serious situation in the wake of adverse observations made by Justice Nirmaljit Kaur in the course of last hearing of COCP 27 of 2013 (O&M) in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 21.

The interim orders made in this regard say: “This Court is pained to note that the order was passed way back in 2008 with a specific direction to the Municipal Corporation to remove encroachments from all those public properties except those falling within direction no. (i) or wherever the civil court decided the matter in favour of the private individual. It is pointed out that a list of almost 5,000 encroachments was provided but only 11 have been removed to date.”

As the counsel for the MC maintained that in all there were 8,000 encroachments out of which 4,000 had been removed and the rest (4,000) were cluster encroachments, he HC had directed the MC Commissioner to file a specific affidavit with a further clarification as to the time period by which these remaining 4,000 encroachments shall be removed either by way of rehabilitation or otherwise. Giving five months time to the MC to do the needful, the court remarked that as the matter has been pending since 2008, it would not be appropriate to give any more time.

Parting with the orders, the HC had issued directions that in case the needful is not done by the next date (July 29, 2019) the Commissioner of MC shall appear before this court with an understanding that if effective steps will not be taken, court will take a serious action.

Next hearing on July 29

Parting with the orders, the HC had issued directions that in case the needful is not done by the next date (July 29, 2019), the Commissioner of MC shall appear before this court with an understanding that in case effective steps for the same are not being taken, a serious view shall be taken by the court.