Notices sent to 212 private schools in city after ad hoc panel’s meeting

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 23

As many as 212 private schools in the city have been issued notices by the Municipal Corporation (MC) and a reply been sought on whether they were running schools according to the rules of the building branch. One of the MC officials said it was for the first time, that notices were issued to schools, that, too, after Nirmal Singh, chairman of the building and roads ad hoc committee, raised the issue with the town planning wing officials. Nirmal Singh during a meeting recently had discussed the issue of private schools suspecting that most of these were not complying with the rules.

As per the information, various points have been mentioned in the notice, in which points such as status of change of land use (CLU), whether the school building was constructed according to the map passed by the MC have been covered.

A total of 10 days has been given to schools to respond. A reminder will again be sent on July 30, and if the schools fail to reply, action would be taken accordingly.

Assistant Town Planner (ATP) Rajinder Sharma said documents will be checked. “Now, we will act according to the guidelines of our seniors,” he said.

Chairman Nirmal Singh, while talking to The Tribune, said it was important to keep check on schools. “There are several issues that need proper vigilance of the corporation and I have decided to take on every discrepancy that is being happening in various areas,” Singh said.

The chairman, along with other committee members, has also sought the details of the number of challans issued to building owners in the city by the town planning branch along with the details of entries in the logbook. Sources said it would be checked if there was a proper record of challans being issued and if it was being entered in the logbook and no malpractice was being carried out under the garb of issuing challans.

It is also reported that since the ad hoc committee has been conducting several meetings with the town planning branch members, the latter have issued a letter and asked the higher officials not to hold regular meetings, as there was a high risk amid the pandemic. However, the ad hoc committee officials on the other hand said the officials were reluctant to hold meetings because the details of so many records were being asked, which was never done earlier. “No matter what, the meetings will be held and answers will be sought,” sources said.

Helping residents

The chairman of the ad hoc committee has made three teams of two members each on his own level. These teams visit the corporation on a daily basis and attend residents and provide solutions to their problems. The chairman said he, along with his team members, got the NOCs cleared of some of the applicants who visited the MC.