88 parks under Patiala MC's TP schemes encroached upon

Ravneet Singh

Patiala, September 1

Over half of parks under the Municipal Corporation’s town planning (TP) schemes have been encroached upon. Also, the civic body office has no details of the action initiated against such encroachments in parks.

This information was revealed in a Corporation’s response to an RTI application in which the former stated that there were ‘approximately’ 159 parks falling in its jurisdiction under various TP schemes, of which ‘approximately’ 71 were open to the public. The civic body stated that it lacked details of action initiated against encroachment in 88 such parks.

The information provided by the Corporation’s building branch mentions 32 TP schemes, including Model Town, Leela Bhawan, Karam Singh Nagar, Pratap Nagar and others, which have not been named but given numbers.

Accordingly, there are eight parks in the Pratap Nagar area of which three are open to the public and the remaining five have been encroached upon. The lone park site at Narula Colony has also been encroached upon, along with all 12 park sites under scheme 18-1 and 12 of total 13 park sites under scheme 12.

The Corporation office further stated that it had no information regarding action initiated against such encroachments in parks.

This is while the Municipal Corporation has two full-fledged wings, including the land branch to check illegal encroachments and the building branch to check violations of the construction norms in the city.

Insiders said the status report of encroachment in 88 parks of the city raised questions over working of the corporation’s two wings. These parks were part of various schemes developed with the Corporation’s permission, insiders added. “The Corporation is supposed to check proper implementation of plans,” insiders said.

An official informed, “Under town planning (TP) scheme a private land is developed with permission of the Corporation and has designated sites for park. Such scheme is notified by the department. But owners do not comply with the norms and sell their land in contravention of the plan. In such cases, the Corporation will have to go to court.”

When contacted, Municipal Corporation Commissioner Aaditya Uppal said, “We will get our records checked and initiate requisite action in the matter.”

The town planning scheme

Under the town planning (TP) scheme, a private land is developed with permission of the Corporation and has designated site for park. The scheme is notified by the department. But owners do not comply with the norms and sell their land in contravention of the plan. In such cases, the Corporation will have to go to court.