Latifpura residents block NH-1 for 3 hours, demand reconstruction of demolished houses at same place

The commuters faced a tough time as the protestors sat on the main highway near the starting point of the flyover from the Ramamandi side, leading to huge traffic jams.

The protesters had announced to block the highway from noon to 2 pm but they blocked it at 11:45 am and lifted the blockade at 3:00 pm.

Though the JIT claimed that it demolished these houses on a court order, it could not provide the record showing its ownership of these dismantled houses on the demand of the chairman of the SC/ST Commission during his visit to Jalandhar last week.

The affected people have been sitting on dharma since the demolition of around 50 houses and are not ready to move away from there despite the government‘s offer of two-room flats.

Meanwhile, several activists of Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, Bharati Kisan Union Ekta Ugrahan Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Tarksheel Society Punjab, Jamhuri Adhikar Sabha, Punjab People Cultural Forum and United Kisan Morcha Chabewal-Mahalpur, Verka Milk Plant Works have strongly condemned the forcible demolition.

They said the attitude of the Punjab government is to suppress the people by using police force. They also said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is in favour of corporate houses.

They said that the Latifpura fight is now the people’s fight and the government should read the “writing on the wall”.
Pendu Mazdoor Union leader Kashmir Singh Ghugshore said on January 16, both National Highway and railway track would be blocked from 11 am to 2 pm if the government did not listen to them. He expressed regret for the inconvenience caused to the highway commuters.