Chandigarh: Chandigarh Congress on Sunday criticised the UT administration for bulldozing and demolishing the decades-old Furniture Market, leaving hundreds of shopkeepers devastated and rendering scores of workers jobless. Congress stated that the action was undertaken in disregard of the Honourable High Court’s observation that a sympathetic view be taken and that efforts be made by the administration to see if alternate sites could be allotted to the affected parties to continue their livelihood.“Rather than pursuing a humane and consultative process, the administration opted for an abrupt and arbitrary demolition without reasonable time for evacuation and without any arrangement for the protection or relocation of inventory and assets. As a result, numerous shopkeepers suffered irreparable financial losses, losing not only their goods and furniture but also the very foundations of their businesses,” Congress said.Chandigarh Congress president HS Lucky strongly condemned the administration’s insensitivity, saying, “What we are witnessing is not governance, but a systematic dismantling of the social fabric that binds our city. The administration has shown no regard for human suffering and no commitment to the principles of a welfare state. We demand that an immediate and comprehensive rehabilitation scheme be introduced and that alternate sites be allotted to the affected shopkeepers to enable them to rebuild their lives and livelihoods. Anything less would be a betrayal of the very ethos of governance in a democratic and socialist republic.”The Congress stated that it stands firmly with the affected families and pledges to raise this matter at every appropriate forum until justice is served. It is imperative that the administration is held accountable for this gross overreach and made to answer for its repeated failure to act with fairness, compassion, and responsibility. Lucky also criticised the Modi-led central govt, under whom the Chandigarh administration works directly, for failing to provide relief to these decades-old establishments.(Photos Pritam Thakur)
