Rehab of poor: HC raps UT

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 25

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has rapped the Chandigarh Administration for making the process of rehabilitating the poor a prisoner to technicalities. A Division Bench reminded the Administration that the rehabilitation scheme should not be undermined.

The development took place on an appeal filed by the UT and another appellant against Krishan Pal and another respondent. The appeal before Justice Mahesh Grover and Justice Shekher Dhawan was filed after a single Judge directed the UT and other respondents to consider the petitioner’s claim for allotment of a flat/tenement as per the 2006 scheme.

The single Judge had observed that the Administration identified 18 jhuggis where people were living in unhygienic conditions and unplanned accommodation before framing a policy, christened as the 2006 scheme.

In the bio-metric survey conducted in March, 2006, the petitioner was found residing in a jhuggi at Nehru Colony in Kajheri village. After the bio-metric survey was conducted, a folio was issued to the petitioner. His family photo as well as individual photo were also taken but the authorities declined the petitioner’s claim only on the ground that his name does not appear in the bio-metric survey conducted by respondents as per the 2006 scheme.

As the appeal came up for hearing before the Division Bench, the counsel for the appellants prayed for permission to withdraw the same. The counsel told the Bench that the respondent’s case had been considered sympathetically and a decision favourable to him was likely to emerge.

“In this view of the matter, we do not intend to pass any orders on the merits of the controversy but would still deem it appropriate to comment that a beneficial scheme intended for the rehabilitation of poor and downtrodden should not be undermined and the Administration should ensure proper verification of the beneficiaries and not to make the process the hostage to mere technicalities as the one which we notice in the present controversy.

“The inherent characteristics of the scheme are intended to generate a benefit to residents of slum areas to which it extends and therefore it is imperative that the Administration keep in mind that the intended benefit is not lost to technicalities. Rather emphasis should be on strict verification… The decision in the case of the respondent be taken as expeditiously as possible, but not later than three weeks…,” the Bench concluded.