Ensure that the displaced have adequate housing alternatives.

Eviction: Jhota Kut Colony razed Express News Service Posted: Sep 21, 2008 at 0102 hrs IST Mohali, September 20 One of the oldest slums in Mohali — Jhota Kut Colony in Sector 71 — was pulled down in a major eviction drive carried out by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) on Saturday evening. GMADA vacated almost five acres of prime land worth several crores in the heart of the city, which was encroached upon since 1980s. While almost 100 concrete structures were razed in today’s anti-encroachment drive, the occupants of the remaining 300 structures were given a day’s time to move out otherwise they will also be removed forcibly, GMADA officials said. With this, hundreds of residents of Sector 71, 70, 3B2 and industrial area in the vicinity heaved a sigh of relief. GMADA will carve out around 50 plots measuring one kanal and 16 marlas each, besides developing a park in continuity with the development of Sector 71 in the vacated land. “We were able to act after winning the legal battle that continued for years,” GMADA Chief Administrator Vivek Partap Singh told Newsline. On September 17, a Punjab and Haryana High Court division bench, comprising Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Surya Kant, had “dismissed on merit” a latter patent appeal (LPA) filed by R S Sandhu and others against the dispossession of the colony dwellers. GMADA Estate Officer (EO) Sukhjeet Pal Singh said that the land was acquired in the 1970s for the development of Sector 71 but in the 1980s, Jhota Kut Colony surfaced on it “illegally”. “When efforts were made to remove the encroachment, the colony dwellers moved courts and procured stay on their dispossession, which continued till last year,” said Pal Singh. He said that after the stay was vacated, the colony dwellers filed an LPA before the High Court, which finally on Wednesday ordered them to vacate it. Around 100 enforcement wing employees of GMADA, led by two Sub-Divisional Officers (SDOs) S K Bains and Surinder Singh, with the help of bulldozers and almost 30 police personnel swooped on the colony around 1.30 pm and demolished almost 90 commercial and 10 residential structures till 5.30 pm. “Due to rain, the squatters sought time to move out voluntarily, following which we asked them to vacate till tomorrow,” said Pal Singh, while adding that the drive will continue till the area is cleared of encroachment. He confirmed that since the colony dwellers were aware of having no legal right over the land under their possession, nobody resisted the drive and instead started shifting their belongings from the illegal structures. Pal Singh said some portion of the vacated land will be used in the ongoing project of widening the roads passing through the area. Mohali Citizens’ Welfare Federation president B S Tej has welcomed the action. “Residents in the vicinity got rid of slum and filth, |which has been making their lives hell since years,” said Tej, while demanding immediate development of the vacated land to avoid resurfacing of the encroachment. Kharar MLA Balbir Sidhu also lauded the drive but demanded rehabilitation of the displaced dwellers. “A separate colony on the same lines of Milk Colony in Dhanas is needed in Mohali to shift all dairies and slums from different parts of the city,” he demanded.

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