AMRITSAR: The civil authorities of district Amritsar seem to be in a quandary over proceedings against Punjab Police personnel who have been “unauthorizedly” occupying many government houses and a number of rest houses in the city.
The police officers who have been transferred out of the district or have retired in the recent past art cither Overstaying in government premises ‘or have handed over possession to their colleagues without going through the right procedure of allotment as required.
‘The district house allotment committee headed by the deputy commissioner is left with no choice but to regularize the “illegal” possession. MrP.S, Shergill, secretary house allotment committee, when contacted, said that in certain cases, notices were issued to officials occupying houses unauthorizedly.
IL is not only the residential houses but certain rest houses that are also under the possession of police for over a decade now. These include canal rest house, PWD rest house, youth hostel and B.R. Modern school.
The latest inclusion in the list is newly constructed sewerage board rest house which is being requisitioned by the district administration for use as residence of inspector general of police (border), Bakshi Ram, who has been recently transferred here in place Of D.R. Bhatti. The new 1.G. is currently staying in the circuit house. It is learnt that Mr, Bhatti had conveyed to his successor about his plans of not vacating the official residence, incidentally, the building is property of improvement trust and servers as the residence and office of the IG.
The canal rest house building has been in possession of CRPF for the last nine years and a portion of it is being used by former DOP, KPS Gill as his camp office, The PWD rest house is also being occupied by the DIG (border) range, Paramjit Singh Sindhu who uses it as residence cum office. The house earmarked for DIG has not been vacated by P.M. Dass who was transferred from here about six months back.
There is a long list of “illegal” occupants of government houses to which district authorities are mute spectators; Those who top the list include Gurinder Singti Dhillon, a former superintendent of police.
The new SP (Detective), Gurdial Singh Dhillon, who was allotted the house of his predecessor ultimately moved into another house vacated by another form SP and now SSP Faridkot, Arpit Shukla, without informing the district authorities. The house occupied by Dhillon still stands in the name of Shukla.
Parampal Singh Sidhu, a former SP (Headquarter) at Amritsar who was in early 1995, transferred to India Reserve Police, presently posted in Chamba, had got his headquarter fixed at Amritsar and did not vacate the house, Rattan Lal Monga is another officer who has been serving in Chandigarh as AIG and continuing possession on house allotted to him here even after a year.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 10, 1996
