High Court Directs Punjab CS to Start Rehabilitation Project within 6 Months...

In a major relief to those who were actually running their shops in the unauthorized Janta Rehri Market, Phase 3-B-1, Mohali since 1990s but destroyed in a fire incident occurred on June 1, 2007;   a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court headed by Mr. Justice Surya Kant has directed the Chief Secretary, Punjab to issue necessary instructions to GMADA (Greater Mohali Area Development Authority) to identify the site and start the rehabilitation project within a time frame of six months.

GMADA

On behalf of the petitioner Ranjit Kaur and some similarly situated effected shopkeepers, the counsel  for the petitioner-Ranjivan Singh contended that since 1978 there existed an unauthorized rehri/khokha market in Mohali and two decades later in the year 1998, a survey was conducted by the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) to regularize the unauthorized  market. In the survey, the petitioners were actually found running their shops. However, their  claim for allotment of shops under the Rehabilitation Scheme was declined in the year 2007 on the ground that they were ‘Tenants’ ignoring the fact that it were them who, in fact,  were running their  business and even got the sum of Rs. 25,000/- from the District Administrative Authorities of SAS Nagar (Mohali) as a compensation for loss of their livelihood in the major fire which broke on June 1st, 2007.

PUDA

While holding that the petitioners belongs to marginalized section of society and their source of livelihood was small time business set up in the khokhas which they had taken on rent/tehabzari basis and keeping in view the fact that  the fire incident snatched their livelihood which  brought them on roads, the High  Court directed the Chief Secretary, Punjab  to intervene in the matter and take appropriate decision to rehabilitate the petitioners within 6 months by way of identifying the site and starting rehabilitation project