A high level drama took place outside Grandwalk mall on Ferozepur Road on Sunday evening when the MC officials had gone to seal and demolish the illegal portion of the mall. The leadership of Shiromani Akali Dal hampered the demolition drive while claiming that MC did not serve any notice before demolition and sealing therefore they will not let it happen.
Due to ongoing protest of the leaders like SAD district president Harbhajan Singh Dang, councillor Tanvir Dhaliwal and Gurdeep Singh Gosha the MC officials had to return back empty handed. Even Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria was present in the mall at that time.
It was after the complaint made by Lok Insaaf party MLA Simarjit Bains to local bodies minister Navjot Sidhu the civic officials were asked to send the report whether there were any violations in the construction of mall. The officials sent the report that green belt was encroached upon for using it as parking and sixth floor of building was totally illegal. The officials including additional commissioner Vishesh Sarangal, joint commissioner Kulpreet Singh,senior town planner Kamaljit Kaur and other building branch officials had gone for the demolition of parking area and sealing of top floor.
However the officials are tight lipped over their failure in getting the demolition done. Requesting anonymity one of the officials said that they could not do demolition as Akali leaders sat in front of the ditch machine and they had to move back.
Meanwhile Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria denied from giving shelter to encroachment and said he had gone for some other work not to stop the demolition. He said that MC officials should have had served notice before demolition.
Meanwhile Rajdeep Singh, senior Manager Fastway while issuing a statement on behalf of Gurdeep Jujhar MD of Fastway said that the action is political vendetta of local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.He said that no encroachment was done on MC land. Only beautification of green belt was done by company. The space was not used by company for any purpose.
Moreover, no notice was served by MC before the demolition. In Ludhiana and other states hundreds of illegal buildings were standing tall but no action was taken by MC. And when it comes of Political vendetta MC team came on Sunday evening, he added.
On the other hand MLA Bains criticised Akali Dal and MC officials for doing this political drama. He said this action proved that former deputy CM Sukhbir Badal has share in Fastway and this mall because Akali leadership reached the spot. Bains said he will approach High Court against this encroachment now.
Source – TOI
