According to officials, after making final allotments to all eligible residents of the Sector 31 Labour Colony, decks have now been cleared for clearing the Air Force land of all encroachments. Such anti-encroachment steps will be initiated early next year.

Sources say this process will start once the final allottees are provided adequate time for making constructions on the bare sites allotted to them in Mauli Jagran.

The Air Force authorities have also been pressing upon the Administration for clearing their land of all encroachments, even as they had objected to the existence of slums around the flight area earlier which finally led to the shifting of the Labour Colony. A total of about 2,700 residents of the Labour Colony have so far been allotted sites in the process of their rehabilitation, after the Chandigarh Administration decided in December to shift the colony from the present site.

The work of shifting of the colony, which was started in December last, was completed in phases to take care of all teething problems and avoid confusion. The last phase of shifting is now underway. Instead of providing built-up rehabilitation, the Administration had decided to provide bare resettlement sites to the eligible jhuggi-dwellers of the Sector 31 Labour Colony.