Mohali: Illegal structures razed in Karoran, Masol villages

The enforcement wing of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) along with a team from the forest department carried out a drive to raze illegal structures in Karoran and Masol villages of Mohali district on Thursday.

The structures had come up in the areas closed under sections 4 & 5 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act.

The teams demolished the entry gates and foundations laid for developing farmhouses by Worldwide Immigration Consultancy Services (WWICS).

On May 9, police had booked Col BS Sandhu (retd), the managing director of WWICS, and his aide Tarsem Singh for building illegal farmhouses in Masol village. The FIR was registered under Section 4 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act against the duo after they were found illegally levelling forest land to develop farmhouses under the name ‘Fair Heavens’ on around 100 acres.

In a press release, district forest officer Guramanpreet Singh said the authorities of WWICS had cut 500 trees and conducted violation of the PLPA on over 30 hectares.

“A follow-up action to compensate this grave loss on the ecologically fragile ecosystem of Kandi area was successfully accomplished by planting more than 10,000 new saplings in the area of violation. For this purpose, a strong contingent comprising 150 forest and police officials besides officers of department of revenue and GMADA was employed. The violators made a failed attempt to halt the ongoing operation and threatened the officials with dire consequences like lodging false complaints with CBI and vigilance,” he added.

Punjab forest minister Lal Chand Kataruchak has already said that the present government has zero tolerance towards violation of forest acts, especially by land mafia, and expressed the state’s resolve to deal such violations with an iron hand.