Ludhiana Municipal Corporation pulls down illegal part of building, Congress leaders allege bias

LUDHIANA: A day after local bodies minister Inderbir Singh Nijjar pulled up building branch officials over illegal buildings, officials demolished the illegal part of a building in Ram Nagar at Shingaar Cinema Road on Friday, triggering protest by local Congress leaders.
A ruckus ensued at the MC’s Zone B office near Samrala Chowk where former Congress MLA Sanjay Talwar came with Congress concillors and alleged that a Congress leader’s building was targeted even though there were many others under construction on the road where the MC had not given permission. He claimed that civic officials were silent about the other violations.
The former Congress MLA claimed that he would call a house meeting after discussing the matter with mayor Balkar Sandhu, where councillors would be asked to give complete details of buildings constructed in the past few months after the change of government. He said they would check whether buildings plans had been approved or change of land use certificate issued or not.
In a meeting held on Thursday, local bodies minister Nijjar had issued a strong message saying that violators would be taken to task. He asked officials about this building in particular and they replied that they had served a notice. However, the cabinet minister directed officials to take action against violations. On Friday morning, building branch officials reached the spot and demolished the front portion and pillars of the building. MC officials retreated when a crowd gathered.
Former MLA Sanjay Talwar and other councillors reached the MC office, where they met the MC municipal town planner and questioned him about other illegal buildings. Former Congress MLA Surinder Dawar also reached the spot.
Building branch officials said on condition of anonymity that a ruling party MLA had complained against the building a few days back. On Thursday, when cabinet minister Inderbir Singh Nijjar held a meeting, he also mentioned this building. They said they were asked to demolish the illegal construction.
Former Congress MLA Sanjay Talwar said, “We are not supporting illegal construction. Our issue is of pick and choose policy being adopted by officials. For this building the Congress worker who is owner had deposited change of land use charges and cheque was deposited with civic officials for composition fee. This building had been under construction from past 15 months.” He added that the owner of the adjoining building did not get any CLU or fulfill any other formality but officials remained silent. He claimed that Congress councillors would meet mayor Sandhu and get a house meeting fixed on one week where officials will be told to answer their queries.
Municipal town planner Rajnish Wadhwa said, “We started action against non compoundable violations and this double storey building was constructed without building plan approval, so demolished it. Though change of land use (CLU) was done but it was not enough.” He denied a pick and choose policy and said they were checking other buildings as well. He asserted that violations would be removed.