Jalandhar: Well before the dawn on Tuesday, the few families of the Latifpura residents, who were living in tents after their houses were demolished by the Jalandhar Improvement Trust on Dec 9, 2022, were evicted, and their belongings were removed. Later, 9 women and 3 men climbed atop the water tank in the Punjabi Mandi Board complex, and different farm groups and Shiromani Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) functionaries came to their support. A few of the protestors also showed bottles of petrol.“When they came with a lot of strength, we started picking up our articles, but the govt officials said that they would get these picked up themselves. We gave in,” said Meena, sitting at the protest site in solidarity with the protestors atop the water tank. She said that her husband, Narinder Kumar, ran an e-rickshaw and their family lived in a tent.Another woman, Paramjit Kaur, said that her family also lived in a tent and her sister-in-law (devrani), Rajwinder Kaur, was among those atop the water tank. She said that her in-laws’ family settled here after coming from West Punjab during Partition.Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner Himanshu Aggarwal said that there were orders from the Punjab and Haryana High Court to clear the site and, in the multi-department operation, they removed 7 families living in the tents at the site and the passage was cleared. “They all were shifted to the flats at Bibi Bhani Complex, and they were satisfied with the new place but later members of the families, who were living at different places after demolition over three years back, climbed atop the water tank,” he said, adding that negotiations were on to resolve the issue and every claimed would be decided on its own merits and evidence.
