A new road built for "good luck" by a Punjab minister outside his official bungalow in Chandigarh's high-security zone was uprooted by JCB machines of the Chandigarh Administration as it was constructed illegally on a green belt area.
The new road, which, according to reports was laid at the behest of Punjab Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi last week after he was told by an astrologer that he should have an east-facing entry to his house for good luck, was built without seeking any permission from the Chandigarh Administration and the city's municipal authorities.
The administration, on Wednesday, pressed two JCBs and got the new road removed. The inter-locking paver blocks put up by the minister on the new road were taken away in trucks. Several officials of the administration and local police were present when the removal exercise was carried out.
"We have orders (from above) to remove the new road which has been built without permission on the green belt," said a junior official at the site.
Channi, who attended a meeting of the Punjab cabinet on Wednesday, avoided media.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on Tuesday virtually given a clean chit to Channi's 'good luck' road saying that "there is nothing wrong in it".
"I have been there and there is nothing. All he has done is that he is the last house and all he has done is that he has made a road around. Its for convenience. I can only tell you what I have seen," Amarinder Singh, who has been promising his government will end VIP culture in Punjab, had told media on Tuesday after inspecting the controversial road.
Incidentally, Channi's house is adjacent to the Chief Minister's official bungalow.
--IANS
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