‘Notices served despite assurance’
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 15: The BJP today sought proper rehabilitation of 39 shopkeepers, who are set to lose their business premises due to the ongoing construction of a flyover from Kunjwani to Satwari here.
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BJP MLAs Vikram Randhawa and Dr Narinder Singh raised the issue during Question Hour in the Legislative Assembly.
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They informed the House that the administration has served notices asking the shopkeepers to vacate the premises, despite a previous assurance that they will be provided alternative land before the construction of the flyover.
Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather asked the MLAs to take their seats to allow the Question Hour to proceed smoothly.
However, when the Question Hour ended, the BJP legislators raised the issue again and demanded a response from the Government. The Speaker said he cannot force the Government to respond on the issues raked up during the Zero Hour.
Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather said that some of the proceedings during Zero Hour by the BJP MLAs will not be recorded or reported.
“Contrary to a promise of proper rehabilitation, the shopkeepers of Nai Basti were served notices to vacate the premises and remove their belongings … They are genuine in their demand for an identified land promised to them, so that they can restart their lives,” Randhawa told reporters outside the Assembly.
He said the shopkeepers are on the roads and “we will join them if the Government fails to rehabilitate them”.
Speaking to reporters, Dr. Narinder Singh, MLA RS Pura-Jammu South pressed for the rehabilitation of shopkeepers from Nai Basti area in the Assembly.
He asked the Government to first fulfil the commitment made with the shopkeepers to rehabilitate them and then uproot them from their only earning source.
Dr. Singh said that all MLAs of BJP stand with the people in every ‘even and odd’. He said that the notice should be withdrawn and allotment should be made before any action on the behalf of the Government.
He said that the shops were coming in the way of the Express Highway extension. The government officials along with the authorities came to the negotiation table and committed that before any action, they would be allotted shops in Chanderbhaga.
“Now, the people should be handed over the shops to enable them to continue to earn their daily bread and butter, he said adding that the party MLAs will fight tooth and nail on the issues of people. He said that as people’s representatives they are ready to sit in with the people in the favour of their genuine demands.
He advised the NC Government to act as a people-friendly administration and not as an “anti-people brigade”. He stressed for a respectful much needed rehabilitation of the affected people before any further action is taken.
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