Urban News

After the district police, the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) employees, too, have alleged nexus between senior officials and illegally occupants of the 60 houses of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) in different parts of the district.

At a meeting of the PUDA Employees’ Joint Action Committee held on Wednesday, the members alleged that illegal occupation of GMADA houses, each ranging between Rs 40-50 lakh, was not possible without the involvement of insiders.

“The encroachers, who first pretended to be victims of the 1984 riot, procured lists of vacant houses before occupying them without any valid allotment or entitlement,” the PUDA employees alleged.

Naming a senior official and a political leader, the PUDA Employees’ JAC alleged that instead of protecting the public property, of which the concerned official was custodian, unscrupulous elements were facilitated in encroaching upon GMADA houses.

They said despite repeated complaints filed by the committee no concrete action was taken by GMADA officials to safeguard the houses.

“Except putting blame on the police and the civil administrations, GMADA officials have done nothing to avoid encroachment or remove them,” the employees alleged.

The committee threatened to launch a massive agitation if the encroached houses were not vacated forthwith to facilitate their allotment to the entitled employees.

Last November, trespassers had broken open the locks of vacant GMADA houses in Phase I, Phase IX, Phase X, Sector 66 and Sector 70. But so far GMADA was not able to evict the illegal occupants.

While GMADA accuse the district civil and police administration of ‘inaction’, the latter blamed the GMADA’s field staff of being ‘hand-in-glove to facilitate encroachments’.

The houses, which include HIG, MIG and LIG categories, were lying vacant for long and GMADA was yet to decide on their sale/allotment before they got illegally occupied.

In the absence of any action, 45 more such houses lying vacant were facing threat of being encroached upon, GMADA Chief Administrator (CA) Vivek Partap Singh had written to Deputy Commissioner Prabhjot Singh Mand and SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar.

The SSP had instead accused GMADA officials of never intimating the day and time when they required police force.

“After failing to protect their property, GMADA officials are trying to put blame on us whereas their own field staffers were involved in facilitating the encroachments,” Bhullar had said.

Similarly, DC had also denied any delay, as alleged by GMADA authorities, in appointing the duty magistrate.