FOSWAC meeting: Members threaten agitation over high conversion rates

FOSWAC members during a meeting at DAV School in Sector 15, Chandigarh, on Sunday. (Express)

The executive committee meeting of Federation of Sectors Welfare Association Chandigarh (FOSWAC) was held at DAV Model School in Sector 15 on Sunday under the chairmanship of Baljinder Singh Bittu. The committee members criticized the unsettled issue of conversion from lease hold to free hold. They complained that despite repeated requests and protests, the charges of conversion have not been reduced to a reasonable and affordable level.

The FOSWAC chairman said they would would launch an agitation in a big way. “The residents cannot pay 50 times more money for the houses they purchased 20 to 30 years ago,” said Bittu.

The committee unanimously passed a resolution to condemn the registration of FIR against Baljinder Singh Bittu and other office bearers of Citizens’ Association which was lodged on the eve of the election for the post of president to Citizens’ Association, Sector 21, in which he was contesting as a president.

The members authorised the select committee to make a representation to the Chandigarh DGP to inquire the matter and cancel the FIR registered against Baljinder Singh Bittu.

The members observed that crime and especially snatchings in the city is at its peak. “There is a lukewarm response to the complaints made by the people in normal course. The Police Control Number (100) has become almost inaccessible due to congestion or the reasons not known,” the members observed.

The members alleged that the municipal corporation has failed miserably to streamline and implement the Vendor Act owing to political pressure. The markets of sectors 17, 22 and 19 do not have space to accommodate the vendors; therefore these markets should be declared vendor-free zone.

Hitesh Puri, vice-chairman of the association, criticised the interference of political parties in the affairs of Residents’ Welfare Association.

J S Gogia appraised the association that the NGT has recently held a meeting in Delhi wherein the defaulting states in implementation of environmental pollution and slow garbage processing was discussed. “The National Green Tribunal came heavily over the defaulters. But pollution has gone three times high in Chandigarh,” he said.