LIT 'reluctant' to take action against illegal construction

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, March 10

Even as the fact has come to fore that the builder, who had razed four EWS flats in Y Block of Maharishi Valmiki Nagar colony of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) for the construction of an illegal commercial complex, had no ownership rights of the land. The LIT authorities are dragging their feet in taking action against the politically connected violator and encroacher.

Eyebrows are being raised over just a notice having been given to the builder for blatant violations and unlawful act as the matter involved is not only unlawful possession of government land but also raising a multi-storey commercial complex without any approved building plan.

In private, the LIT officials agreed that the construction of commercial complex on government land, that too without bona fide ownership, change of land use (CLU) and approved building plan is a non-compoundable violation and ought to be demolished without any prior notice to the builder. But then why such an action is not being taken smacked of political pressure on the LIT authorities.

It was also officially stated by sale branch of the LIT that the four EWS flats— which were pulled down to make way for the commercial complex, were not allotted. “And even if these were allotted at any time early on, the allotment stands cancelled due to default in payment. In other words, ownership of the four flats in question does not lie with anybody and the flats are shown as vacant and unallotted in the LIT records,” say the officials.

Alleging that senior leaders of the ruling party (Congress) were behind this blatant violation and rather unlawful activity, social activist Arvind Sharma has demanded from the Local Government, Punjab, to initiate a high-level probe in this matter to identify the perpetrators of the gross irregularity, their political patrons and conniving LIT officials.