Developer assaults, abuses woman building inspector

Ludhiana: A private developer abused and slapped a woman building inspector when she, along with her team, went to demolish structures in an illegal colony at Tibba Road on Wednesday.
With his car, the developer hit the vehicle of MC officials and later ran into a vegetable vendor while chasing them. The municipal corporation has got an FIR registered against him.
Health branch officials had gone to check MC garbage dump on Tajpur Road when they noticed some construction going on in an illegal colony a few metres away. The health officials informed the building branch and its staffers went there for demolition.
Head draftsmen Rajkumar and Inderjit Singh, draftsman Harjit Singh and building inspectors Davinder Singh and Kashish Garg reached the site and razed the illegal structures. As soon as they started their car for returning to MC office, the developer, identified as Gurnam Singh, drove there and hit their vehicle twice. As the MC staffers drove their car towards a vacant plot, the speeding car of the developer hit a vegetable vendor, Rakesh, while chasing them. The vendor, who has received head injuries, has been admitted to civil hospital.
Twenty-three-year-old woman official Kashish Garg said, “When we moved the car to the vacant plot, I alighted. Before I could understand anything, the developer held me from my arm and started slapping and abusing me. I kept on requesting him to listen to me once and that I was of his daughter’s age, but he used abusive language and also misbehaved with me.”
Head draftsman Rajkumar said they came out of the car and ran towards the developer, but he fled. “We have informed our seniors as well as the police and sought action as the accused tried to kill us by ramming his car into our vehicle.”
Garg said she was in a state of shock. “I started working as a building inspector around one year ago. I will need time to come out of the trauma of this incident,” she added.
Zonal commissioner JS Sekhon said, “We have got the entire colony demolished. An FIR has been registered. Union members will hold a protest rally or a strike against this attack.”
The incident comes less than a month after a woman drug inspector, Neha Shourie, was shot dead in her office in Kharar.
MC officials went without police
Ignoring previous incidents wherein MC employees had to face thrashing and abuse in the absence of adequate planning and safety measures, the five building branch officials and a few class IV employees went to demolish the colony without police help. Head draftsman Rajkumar said, “We were asked to go and check illegal construction work near the MC dump. We did not take force along because it was a minor drive. Somebody informed the developer from the site and he came within minutes.”
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