No plan of action in place against encroachments by religious bodies

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, August 23

Not that the track record of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) authorities in removal of encroachments is something remarkable, but it is worse in the case of encroachments on public land in various colonies of the Trust by religious institutions where places of worship have been constructed, albeit illegally.

Although the LIT, along with the Municipal Corporation, is facing contempt petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court for failure to remove encroachments and an undertaking was given by its then chairman by way of an affidavit to act as per law against unlawful occupants, no plan of action seems to be in place for this purpose, as of now.

Information provided by the LIT to Council of RTI Activists president Rohit Sabharwal under the Right to Information Act has revealed that some 4.90 acre Trust land is encroached upon by eight religious institutions in three colonies while another 2.86 acre is under unlawful occupation of individuals in eight colonies of the Trust.

By rough estimates, the total land of LIT under encroachments has a market value of nearly 150 crore.

The Public Information Officer of the Trust, through his letter (no LIT/RTI/6343 dated August 19), has intimated Sabharwal that six parks/green belt – two in block X, two in block Z, one each in block Y and F, were under encroachment in Maharishi Valmiki Nagar where two gurdwaras, one temple, one Ram Mandir, one Ramdev Mandir and one Valmiki Ashram were set up on the Trust land.

Similarly, one school site in Rajguru Nagar was under unlawful occupation in Rajguru Nagar where a Vaishno Devi Mandir had been set up and 15,700 square yards of Trust land in A block of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar was under encroachment by a mandir and a gurdwara.

In addition, eight other encroachments on Trust land in various colonies were still to be removed, which were a part of the list of encroachments submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court in CWP 4886 of 2003, which was pending before the court.

The encroachments by individuals, police and even some more religious bodies include 2,200 square yards in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (residential buildings), 4,936 square yards in Model Town Extension Part-I (structures and shanties), 120 square yards in Model Town Extension Part II (house), 1,887 square yards school site and 750 square yards site for residential plots in block L of Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar where structures have been raised, 1,395 square yards reserved for community centre in dairy scheme (police post, mandir and gurudwara), 2,100 square yards in Kitchlu Nagar (private buildings), 136 square yards in truck stand (private building) and 333.33 square yards SCF in Moti Nagar (gurdwara).

LIT officials were non-committal about any plan of action or time frame for removal of these permanent encroachments saying the matter was under consideration and appropriate action would be taken in this regard.