Slamming civic body officials for serving thousands of ‘absurd’ illegal-construction notices on the basis of new power connections availed by home owners, the local unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party submitted a memorandum with the municipal town planner at the Zone D office on Friday.
The BJP leaders, led by party state vice-president Praveen Bansal and former councillor Inder Aggarwal, alleged that around 16,000 notices had been served across the district, without verifying whether any actual illegal construction had taken place. “Notices are also being served to those who have gotten a sub-meter installed at their house or have gotten their power load extended,” they said.
Criticising mayor Balkar Sandhu, Bansal said the civic body’s single-minded attempts to fill their coffers was causing harassment to the common man, who was forced to make multiple visits to the MC office to get the confusion straightened out. “This is also encouraging corruption as some municipal corporation officials are promising to settle the matter in exchange of a bribe,” he alleged.
“The notices are being served on the assumption that if a person has applied for new power connection, he must have carried out some reconstruction. This will not fly. We will also take up the matter with the mayor once he returns from Chennai. If need be, our party will raise an agitation,” Bansal said.
{{/usCountry}}“The notices are being served on the assumption that if a person has applied for new power connection, he must have carried out some reconstruction. This will not fly. We will also take up the matter with the mayor once he returns from Chennai. If need be, our party will raise an agitation,” Bansal said.
{{/usCountry}}A local, Jatinder Kumar, who had accompanied Bansal, said, “Earlier, we used to live in a joint family. After we separated our households, my brother got a separate electricity meter installed in his portion of the house. Subsequently, the civic body served us a notice saying that we had made changes in the building as well, which is untrue.”
An MC official, requesting anonymity, said additional commissioner Rishipal Singh had initiated an inquiry into illegal construction in the district by comparing the approved building plans with the power connections availed by residents over the last few years. During the inquiry, 16,000 extra connections were found, following which the building branch was directed to serve notices to building owners.
Municipal town planner Surinder Bindra said, “The notices were served on the directions of higher authorities so as to keep a tab on illegal construction. Since we have been apprised of the issues being faced by residents, I will take up the matter with the higher officials and further action will be taken as per their directions.”