The Punjab government today suspended Executive Officer of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), Avtar Singh Azad, for failing to inform the government about a case going on at Consumer Forum, Ludhiana, on the basis of which non-bailable warrants had been issued by the forum against Principal Secretary, Local Government, D.S. Bains. Sources said forum president T.N. Vaidya had issued the orders, which were withdrawn today, to arrest Bains and LIT Administrator Ashok Kumar Sikka. The orders concerned a case filed by one Shakuntla Devi, who had moved the forum, alleging that she had not been allotted a one-kanal plot by the LIT as was due to her after her land was acquired by the Trust in 1973. The Trust had lost the case in the state as well as the national consumer forums, but had still not allotted her a plot. She had moved the Ludhiana Consumer Forum again to get the orders of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission implemented.After the Local Bodies Department reportedly came down heavily on LIT, a plot has now been allotted to her in Rishi Balmiki Nagar here. Azad has been suspended for not informing the government about the fact that the Trust had lost the case at all levels. The warrants against Bains and Sikka were withdrawn after government counsel Ashok Bajaj told the forum that the orders will be implemented at the earliest and the state government had been apprised of the issue on Thursday. In September, the forum had issued show-cause notices to the officials concerned, asking them to allot the plot to Devi by November 26.When contacted, D.S. Bains said all the pending cases pertaining to Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar improvement trusts will be scrutinised by two law officers of the department to ensure such incidents are not repeated in future.
