Eviction warning: Chandigarh admn slaps show-cause on Cheshire Home inmates

The UT administration has slapped a show-cause notice on the inmates of Cheshire Home, Sector 21-A, asking them why they should they should not be evicted from the premises. The Cheshire Home houses people with physical disabilities, including a team of wheelchair cricketers, that has brought laurels to the city in various sporting events time and again.

The notice, issued by the sub divisional magistrate (east), has named 25 inmates residing in House No 341 (Cheshire Home), Sector 21-A, and asked them why they should not be evicted under the stringent Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.

Sharmita Bhinder, Founder of Empower NGO, which has been taking up the cause of the inmates, said, “These men and women, born with physical disabilities to various degrees, and hailing from the weaker sections of society, who earlier were the residents of the erstwhile Cheshire Home, then situated in Sector 15, were shifted to the present premises in Sector 21-A with the knowledge and consent of the Chandigarh Administration.”

Bhinder added that the administration has done little for welfare of the inmates and it was only after a rap from the Punjab and Haryana high court, during hearing of a petition relating to a differently abled child, that it provided the inmates with basic amenities.

“The inmates have tried time and again to interact with the department of social welfare but in vain. It seems there is an ulterior motive in removing the inmates since the said house is a two-kanal prime property worth crores,” said Bhinder.

The administration had earlier decided to make it a home for persons with mental disabilities but later decided to do so on a two-acre plot situated on the GRIID Campus, Sector 31, Chandigarh.