After suicide bid by trader, Patiala MC withdraws shop ‘sealing’ notice
Ravneet Singh
Patiala, August 2
Questions are being raised after the Patiala Municipal Corporation removed its notice to seal a shop soon after its owner Sooraj Bhatia attempted suicide on Tuesday.
Bhatia’s shop at Anardana Chowk was sealed by the MC officials in the morning, but the notice was later removed after Bhatia tried to end his life in protest against the move at the MC office. He was admitted to the ICU of a private hospital.
His relatives said Bhatia had sold his wife’s jewellery to buy the shop. The MC officials started making rounds of the shop around four months ago, raising questions about certain violations even as the shop had been constructed by the previous owner, they claimed.
They said the MC officials pasted sealing order at the shop, which didn’t carry the signature of the commissioner. It was rather a statement that the shop had been sealed upon his orders. But after Bhatia consumed some poisonous substance, the officials removed the said notice in a jiffy, they claimed.
A former councillor questioned the process of sealing and de-sealing buildings without necessary sanction by senior functionaries. “Junior officials paste notices sans signatures outside shops and buildings. Such a practice is in place for long and is done in connivance with senior functionaries. It should be probed how and why buildings are sealed and de-sealed.”
Meanwhile, MC officials remained tight-lipped on the issue. The office of the Municipal Town Planner (MTP) had been issuing notices to Bhatia over the violation of Section 269 (1) (notice for erection of building without or contrary to the sanctioned plan) of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1971.
When contacted, Municipal Town Planner Neeraj Bhatti said he was not aware of the violation. “Only the MC Commissioner is aware of the matter and will respond soon as the file is in his possession,” he said. Commissioner Aaditya Uppal could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
