Illegal constructions continue under Ludhiana MC’s nose

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, January 1

Though the building branch of the Municipal Corporation (MC) had demolished a few illegal commercial buildings on Jassian Road in Haibowal, falling under Zone-D recently, in other localities in the same zone, over six illegal commercial buildings are under different stages of construction.

Secretary of the Council of RTI Activists Arvind Sharma has lodged a complaint with Principal Secretary, Local Government, Punjab, with its copies to Director, Local Bodies, Punjab, the Chief Vigilance Officer, Local Government and the MC Commissioner in this regard. He alleged that several illegal commercial buildings were coming up at Pakhowal Road, in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar near Pakhowal Road crossing, four shops with basements in the same locality and another building near ICICI Bank, Tikona Park, in Model Town – all in Zone-D were being constructed in violation of building bylaws and without payment of change of land use with MC staff closing their eyes.

Sharma said a number of complaints had been lodged with field staff and senior officials of MC building branch with photographs of the illegal buildings without moving them into action. That such rampant violations were not being checked at the initial stage at the time of commencement of construction cast doubt on the integrity of the regulatory and enforcement machinery of the civic body.

He urged the top officials of the Local Government Department to call for a detailed report of all such illegal commercial buildings being constructed in different parts of the city based on spot survey so that responsibility of the negligent employees and officials could be fixed and action as per rules could be taken against them for failure to perform their assigned duty diligently.

MC officials said challans under relevant provisions of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act had already been issued to violators and the staff concerned of building branch had also been directed to process the challans and recover composition fee for compoundable violations. “Whereas non-compoundable violations of building bylaws are concerned, all such illegal portions and extensions will be demolished after serving notices to the builders as required under the prevalent rules,” said the official.