MOHALI: Senior Congress leader and former Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu strongly condemned the notices issued by GMADA to allottees of Sectors 76 to 80 in Mohali, demanding payment of an additional enhanced cost of ₹3, 164 per square metre. He termed the decision arbitrary, unjustified and baseless.
Sidhu said that plots in Sectors 76–80 were allotted in the year 2000 at rates ranging between ₹3, 300 and ₹3, 350 per square yard across different categories, and possession was to be handed over in 2002. However, due to GMADA’s fault and the resulting litigation, possession was delayed and was eventually given between 2013 and 2019. He stated that GMADA’s decision to recover the enhanced price along with interest in 2023—nearly ten years later—by citing a 2013 Supreme Court judgment cannot be justified in any manner.
Sidhu further said that due to a delay of nearly 12 to 15 years in getting possession of plots, the allottees had already suffered because of the manifold increase in construction costs, which itself was a consequence of GMADA’s fault. Now, by imposing interest and penalties along with the enhanced price, the allottees are being subjected to a double blow through this dictatorial decision.
The former minister accused the area MLA Kulwant Singh of repeatedly misleading people on this very serious issue. He said that the truth behind the claim of reducing ₹839 per square metre from the increased amount—publicised earlier and highlighted through advertisements published in newspapers yesterday—has now come to light. Sidhu said that the MLA is still misleading people by claiming that the notices published in newspapers were merely meant to verify residential addresses, whereas the notices clearly and explicitly mention the recovery of the enhanced cost of ₹3, 164 per square metre in plain Punjabi.