LUDHIANA: Hundreds of property dealers organized a rally and blocked road traffic here in protest against the new property legislations requiring regularization of their business after fulfilling some “stringent” conditions.
After holding the rally at Jarnal pur Housing Board Colony, which was addressed by leaders of different political parties including the BJP MLA, Mr. Sat Pal Gosain, CPM MLA ‘Tarsem Jodhan, former Akali Minister Jagdev Singh Taj Puri, municipal councilors Subhash Bhatia and Ravinder Pal Singh Khalsa, they marched in a procession towards the Clock Tower Chowk, where they stopped vehicular traffic.
Later, they submitted a memorandum to Mr. Chander Shekhar Talwar, administrator of the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA), which was addressed to the Chief Minister.
‘The property dealers served a 20day ultimatum on the state govern ment to withdraw the property legislations, failing which they threatened to take recourse to a Statewide agitation.
Mr, Gosain said that this could clue gherao of the Chief Minister, besides holding of dharnas, hunger strike and rallies.
‘They feared that about five lakh persons associated with this trade would be rendered out of work through these measures’ ‘The agitators demanded that the precondition of matriculation as the basic qualification for property business should be waived since there was ‘no such qualification for any other type of business the requirements Of obtaining license and paying guarantee fee should also be done away with since the colonizers had nothing to do with government revenue and that the government should come out with colony development plans and MAPS so as to enable carving of plots accordingly.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 21, 1996
