NRI: will caution investors in UK
Saturday, 05/01/2013
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MOGA: When Punjab government has held the Pravasi Punjabi Sammelan to woo expatriates, this NRI wants to be on a campaign to counter the claims.
In 2006, Chand Singh Johal of the United Kingdom ( UK) had bought Kaner rest house from the Punjab tourism development corporation ( PTDC) for Rs 4.5 crore. He has said now that the government cheated and harassed him.
It was six years ago that Johal had won the rest house in auction. In the same bid, he also won the ownership of a restaurant on the Bugghipura bypass nearby on the MogaLudhiana national highway. He spent more than Rs 1.5 crore on the renovation of the rest house and changed the restaurant’s name to Kingdom.
In June 2006, the land was registered in the name of Johal, restaurant manager Nirmal Singh has said. “We paid for the 3.88 acres notified in the tender but during the extension work, we found we had been cheated of 57 marlas worth crores of rupees,” he added. Johal has charged the PTDC with running a petrol- filling station on the 57 acres for which he made the payment.
“I made numerous rounds of the government offices and met politicians to get possession of the land that the PDTC had encroached upon,” said Johal. “I met deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and NRI affairs minister Bikram Singh Majithia, and even assurance from chief minister Parkash Singh Badal come to nothing.”
Johal won the case against the forest department but only after the battle in court had worn him down. The lawsuit was for claiming the ownership of the trees that stood along the boundary wall of the rest house.
Johal claims to have made more than 30 trips to Punjab in six years to meet senior officials and ministers over the grievance. “My business in the UK suffered because the court matter kept me occupied in Punjab,” he said. “I will begin an awareness campaign in the UK to warn other overseas Indians that the Punjab government is not bothered to redress their grievances.”
