Roads sprout where VVIPs choose to build their homes

Last May, the Roopnagar district authorities sanctioned Rs 20 lakh from the District Development & Planning Board and the central government’s Employment Assurance Scheme for building another 3-km road from Sultanpur Tapprian to the Pallanpur forest rest house. Almost simultaneously, the rest house underwent an upgrade, fitted out with ACs and plush furniture. The rest house, officials say, is the reason why the road is being built; however, the rest house is already connected by the Pallanpur road.

While most link roads connecting villages in this area are in poor condition, this high-quality road is built according to highway standards. Negotiations are currently underway between the SDM, Kharar and some landowners to complete the final 500 m stretch of the road to the rest house and the poultry farm.

Roopnagar Additional DC (Development) J S Brar’s explanation for the second thoroughfare is as full of holes as an ordinary link road. Denying that it had anything to do with the poultry farm, Brar initially tried to claim that the road was meant to connect Pallanpur village to the rest house. However, the road is set a few km away from the village as the crow flies.

Brar, when told this, changed tack and said the road was meant to connect some houses of Pallanpur and Sultanpur villages. And therein lies the rub: No ordinary villager has a dwelling along the road. Those who do own property include Badal’s relative H S Mejee; the naib tehsildar of the region; a senior journalist with a leading Punjabi daily and a commissioner of a municipal corporation.

That’s not the end of the story. At Nayagaon, near Chandigarh, Badal’s maternal cousin Binni Mann is constructing a huge farmhouse long after the cut-off date set by the PUDA. The last date for regularising constructions, which are forbidden under the Punjab New Capital Periphery Control Act, 1952, was December 9, 1998; Mann’s farmhouse has come up after that date and is still being built.

Mann has allegedly committed other violations: Sources say he does not have the requisite minimum of five acres to build a farmhouse and that his covered floor area is more than double the 1,500 sq feet allowed under PUDA laws.

However, PUDA has not yet issued a show-cause notice that can invite demolition under Section 12 (2). “Since Nayagaon has a large number of illegal VVIP constructions, the PUDA demolition teams have not ventured into the area for a long time. The last demolitions in the area were in June 1999 in the neighbouring Kansal village,” a senior official said.

Chief Administrator, PUDA, K B S Sidhu said that the delay in initiating demolitions was on account of the lengthy procedure involved. PUDA, he added, was in the process of issuing notices. He said he could not comment on the Mann case as he “did not have first-hand knowledge”.

When contacted, Mann expressed ignorance about the laws pertaining to the 5-acre requirement and the ceiling of 1,500 sq feet. He could furnish no proof of his construction having been completed before December 9, 1998, save a letter he says he has written to PUDA claiming that his construction did not violate the deadline and had commenced in August 1998.