Chandigarh: Punjab government has taken a serious view of the forcible occupation of the houses built by the Punjab Housing Board by the migrant Sikh families as different places in the state It has instructed the district authorities ‘ prevent the recurrence of such incidents. The state cabinet COR sidered the matter on December 21. It is estimated that nearly 1,000 migrant families had taken forcible possession of the Board houses at S.A.S Nagar, Ludhiana and Patiala. The maximum number of houses occupied by the Sikh migrant families was at Ludhiana. According to a spokesman of the migrant families, the Punjab government had not given them any shelter ever since they came to Punjab more than a year ago.

In view of the acute winter, they had to take shelter in government houses. Meanwhile the Punjab government has promoted a deputy secretary Mr. Kailash Chander Mahajan whose replacement from the home department was being demanded on the ground’ that the Home department was heavily weighted against one particular community in Punjab.

Article extracted from this publication >>  December 27, 1985