E-Paper
Alleging corruption, BJP protests against closed-door meeting of Ludhiana Improvement Trust
The agitation took place at the same time when the Ludhiana Improvement Trust chairperson and trustees were participating in the meeting inside the office at Feroze Gandhi market
Lambasting Raman Balasubramaniam, the chairperson of Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), for not making the agenda of the trust meeting public and allegedly indulging in corrupt practices during the ‘closed-door’ meeting held on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a protest outside the LIT office.
The agitation took place at the same time when the chairperson and LIT trustees were participating in the meeting inside the office at Feroze Gandhi market.
The protesters, led by district secretary Lucky Chopra and Ghumar Mandi mandal president Sandeep Wadhwa, alleged that on one hand, chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi had been making tall claims of running a transparent government, but on the other, LIT has even restricted the entry of public in the office.
Closed-door meetings are being held to benefit the close aides by bending the rules, they alleged.
“It has been learnt that during the meeting held on Tuesday, LIT has approved cases for allotment of plots under locally displaced persons (LDP) category by bending the rules. Further proceedings of properties auctioned in the past are approved during the meeting. The chairperson had been involved in corrupt practices in the past and the state government should take action against him,” Chopra said.
“Neither mediapersons were not allowed to enter the building nor the agenda was made public, which raises questions over the functioning of the chairperson and the LIT at large,” he added, while demanding the agenda to be made public.
Meanwhile, Balasubramaniam said that the agenda of the meeting was sent to the trustees on October 14 and none of them complained about not receiving the same.
“BJP leaders are levelling baseless allegations. The LIT cannot release each and every information as we have to keep secrecy in some of the issues as per the norms. The BJP leaders are raising hue and cry as I have tightened the noose around the property mafia in the LIT. No resolution or decision has been approved by moving against the norms. As far as the LDP cases are concerned, in few of the cases the court has recommended allotment of plots to residents while some have been recommended by the government. The final decision regarding the LDP cases has to be taken by the state government only,” he added.
As per the information, around 23 resolutions were discussed during the trust meeting held on Tuesday, out of which at least seven were regarding the LDP cases.
In LDP cases, the trust has to allot alternative plots to residents after their land is acquired by LIT for some project.
Trustees Anil Parti, Vicky Gypsy, and Vijay Gaba along with LIT executive officer Kuljit Kaur were among the participants of the meeting.
