E-Paper
Resident on protest outside Ludhiana Improvement Trust office, says officials demanding ₹2 lakh bribe
The resident, identified as JP Singh, said he has been making rounds of the LIT office for the last three years for registry of a plot but officials have been dilly-dallying the work, citing a vigilance inquiry. He alleged that some officials have even asked him for bribe up to ₹2 lakh
Following the arrest of two Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) officials on Thursday, a resident of Bhai Randhir Singh (BRS-Block J) Nagar, who has been sitting on protest for the past two weeks, said the officials have been demanding ₹2 lakh bribe from him.
The resident, identified as JP Singh, said he has been making rounds of the LIT office for the last three years for registry of a plot but officials have been dilly-dallying the work, citing a vigilance inquiry.
He alleged that some officials have even asked him for bribe up to ₹2 lakh.
Singh claimed that he had applied for registry in 2015 but LIT officials wrongly showed a default in payment for the plot and asked him for bribe for resolving the issue. He said he has been residing in the house established on the plot for years but authorities are not registering it in his name.
“I have been visiting the office regularly for the last three years but to no avail. A petition was also filed in the high court, which directed the officials to take final decision on the application, but nothing has been done. The authorities are saying that a vigilance inquiry is on, but they have failed to share which officer is conducting the inquiry,” said Singh.
LIT officials however stated that a vigilance inquiry is going on over the plot allotment and it cannot be registered in Singh’s name until the inquiry concludes. They said former LIT chairman Raman Balasubramaniam had approved a resolution in Singh’s favour and the Trust had sought permission from the state government to register the plot in his name but the government stopped it.
