After PUDA razed unauthorised structures on June 26, a senior PUDA official is reported to have instructed the staff to stop the drive. Some influential persons having substantial property in the area are known to have even met Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Manpreet Singh, site engineer of a housing welfare society belonging to a newspaper group, said: "Along with local leaders our society office-bearers have met at the ministry level and have been assured that PUDA will not demolish the remaining structures and we can rebuild the demolished ones."

Jasbir Singh of another society belonging to the working women, said: "We have met the Punjab Chief Minister along with some influential persons and have been assured that PUDA will not further demolish our structures; the same has been conveyed to us by the PUDA officials. The CM has also assured that the area would be notified as an NAC on the lines of Zirakpur," he added.

Chandigarh Newsline repeatedly tried to contact PUDA vice chairman A.K. Dubey but he was not available for comments.

The June 26 demolitions removed nearly a dozen structures on roughly 90 acres of prime land in Kansal village behind Sukhna Lake. PUDA had planned to return to the same area on subsequent days to demolish many other building in the area.

Today, when Newsline reached the spot, re-construction of razed structures was in full swing. Labourers said they will raise the demolished boundary wall again and also the partially demolished houses.

Incidentally, the foundation stone of the housing welfare society was laid by Punjab Local Bodies Minister Balramji Dass Tandon on October 30, 1998.

At other sites hit by the demolition squad, proprietors were seen supervising labourers collecting debris and starting construction work again. "No one can touch us now," gloated residents of houses which had been left untouched in the June 26 operation. "We were warned to leave the house and go away, but we know we need not heed that," one woman said.

On condition of anonymity, an official said these structures had come up illegally on agricultural land. The Punjab Capital Act bars colonisation or other forms of urban development in the land falling within a 16-km belt beyond the Chandigarh boundary; this land is set aside for agricultural use only.

Earlier, the Punjab government declared December 10, 1998, the cut-off date for regularising built-up houses by providing basic amenities. However, any structures built before that date in an unauthorised colony would be demolished, said an official.

Meanwhile, members of the Ghar Bachao Committee gathered at Naya Goan to protest PUDA demolitions in Kansal. Addressing the rally, ex-Roopnagar MP Satwinder Kaur Dhaliwal said: "Such demolitions shall not be repeated. A nagar panchayat would be constituted for the proper development of the area."