After almost five months, the UT Administration Wednesday got vacated the encroached passage and began the restoration of the load-bearing wall. They submitted a complaint to the Sector 17 police station to file an FIR against the chemist for putting people's lives at risk. In September last year, after an inspection by the UT Health Department, it was found that a chemist shop in GMSH-16, the only one in the hospital, was being run by the same firm for almost three decades at a rent much lower than the market rates. The shop was allotted to Sunil Jain through an auction in 1993 for two years, and after that, no fresh tenders were issued. The lease was extended every five years, with the new being from 2019 to 2024. The probe also indicated that the chemist had encroached upon a common public passage, meant for the safety of people and extended the shop, thereby putting lives at risk, in case of a fire or earthquake. On Tuesday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed the order passed by the lower court, giving the administration the right to lease out the chemist shop (number 6). The UT Health Department on Tuesday through a notice to Sunil Kumar had asked him to vacate the passage and make the load-bearing wall by noon of February 15. After the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday stayed the order passed by the lower appellate court and gave liberty to the Chandigarh Administration to lease out the chemist shop number 6, the UT health department on Tuesday issued a fresh notice to chemist Sunil Kumar and asked him to immediately vacate the public passage and restore the load-bearing wall by noon of February 15. Though a 24x7 chemist shop, after receiving the notice, Sunil Kumar locked the shop and after waiting for his response by 12.15 on Wednesday, the passage was cleared and the load-bearing wall was restored. The entire exercise was carried out by the officers of the health department and the engineering department under police protection. An executive magistrate was also deputed by the District Magistrate Chandigarh to maintain law and order at the location. The health department is computing its cost, along with rent/damage charges for encroachment of public passage. The department also asked the chemist to hand over possession of the chemist shop (number 6) by 10 am on February 17. The UT Administration also opened bids for the new lease of the shop on February 15, till March 9, at the minimum bid of Rs 10,00,000 per month.
