Illegal construction picks up pace amid no check

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 16

The construction of sealed illegal hotels has restarted in several areas of the walled city. Several RTI activists, social workers and residents have been complaining against the ongoing constructions in a number of illegal buildings, but to no avail.

Some employees of the Municipal Town Planning (MTP) wing of the MC claimed that after the resolution of the civic body House to suspend some of the assistant town planners (ATPs), officials are not visiting the field properly.

In the absence of a surveillance by MTP officials, there are several illegal hotel owners who have resumed construction work.

Advocate Ravi Mahajan, a complainant, said that a local resident was constructing his hotel illegally on the MC land in Sheran Wala Gate. “It is very strange. Earlier, a constructed portion was demolished . It should be inquired by senior officials of the MC to ascertain that with whom connivance that man is grabbing the MC land worth crores of rupees in Bazaar Bakawana where new construction is legally banned by the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC).”

Similarly, there is another property of the MC worth crores of rupees in Bazaar Bakawana inside Sheran Wala Gate on which a Mahant is constructing a hotel under the garb of a mandir (temple) without permission of the Municipal Corporation. It is a clear violation of the High Court order.

Advocate Ravi Mahajan claimed that a complaint was already pending with the MC, but no action had been taken.

However, a Municipal Town Planning official, who didn’t wish to be named, said no official could work fairly under political pressure. “Every hotelier is politically influential. They do not allow us to take action. There is a resentment over the resolution in the MC General House so officers are avoiding to visit the field,” he added.