Jalandhar: Latifpura residents reject govt's rehab offer
Avneet Kaur
Jalandhar, December 18
Nine days have passed since the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) carried out a major demolition drive at Latifpura here; however, the families who lost their dwellings continue to spend their nights in the tents surrounded by rubble and garbage dump.
One of the elderly residents of Latifpura, Kashmir Singh (70), says the 2BHK flats offered by the government are in such a poor condition that even those who purchased these then had filed cases against JIT in the consumer forum, seeking compensation and refund of their money. He adds the government had hastily carried out the demolition here without even serving the notices. Now, when it had to compensate, it again announced in the media that too without discussing it with those who have to live there.
He says in 2002, the JIT served notices to Latifpura residents, in which it asked them to either pay Rs 100 per month as rent or vacate the houses. “We then filed a case against JIT in the SDM court, which we won in 2006. The JIT moved higher court,” he added. Kashmir says the government has carried out the demolition drive only because this property is worth crores now. “Had it been any other locality outside Model Town, the government would have happily handed over the ownership of this land to the residents,” he claims.
He emphasises come what may, they will not move from here at any cost and the government has to reconstruct their houses at the same site.
Another resident, Harjinder Kaur, who had a 7-marla house at Latifpura, says she has a 19-year-old daughter, who is forced to stay with her in the tents as she had no other place to go. “The government has thrown our young daughters, children and old parents out of their houses in this freezing cold, and now officials are saying they feel sorry for their action and had to do so because of court orders,” she says, adding that the government should have discussed this rehabilitation plan with the residents before the demolition drive.
Harjinder further says the young girls are facing problems, and have to go to nearby gurdwaras or the houses of nearby localities to use the washroom. “Nobody can understand what we are going through. If the NGOs, Khalsa Aid and farmers had not come to our rescue, we would have died due to cold by sleeping under the open sky,” she adds.
Meanwhile, several farmer unions, including the Punjab Kisan Union (Baaghi), Kirti Kisan Union, Amritsar, and Bhartiya Kisan Union, which are camping at the site in support of the displaced families, and started a pucca morcha named ‘Latifpura Murh Vasao’ against the state government, have announced that it thet would hold a massive march on December 20. Farmer leaders along with the residents also burnt the effigies of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and DCP Jaskiranjit Singh Teja today, condemning the government’s action and police behaviour towards the residents during demolition.
They say the residents have rejected the government’s offer of 2BHK flats, and want their houses to be rebuilt at the same site. Farmer leader Gurdeep Singh Bhandal said: “We will convert this site into Singhu border like protest if the demands are not met.”
ADC bajwa meets farmer leaders
ADC (Development) Varinder Pal Singh Bajwa on Sunday visited Latifpura and held a meeting with farmer leaders. Kisan union leaders said they had in the meeting kept their demand of reconstructing the houses of displaced families at the same site, and compensation to the tune of Rs 1 crore for the losses they faced. He said the ADC assured them that he would convey their demands to the higher authorities.
