The Hindu : `Order on farmhouses illegal'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 07, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Order on farmhouses illegal'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 6. Terming the recent Delhi Government order levying a charge of Rs.40,000 on farmhouse owners for organising social functions including marriages as unconstitutional, the Bharatiya Janata Party Councillor and the Delhi Municipal Corporation's Standing Committee Member, Vijender Kumar Gupta, today said the directive was against the provision of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act and should be withdrawn immediately.

Mr. Gupta has also written a letter to the Delhi Urban Development Minister, A.K. Walia, stating that only under the provisions of the DMC Act any misuse order has to be incorporated in the Budget proposals and sanctioned. But the Corporation's Budget proposals for the year 2004-05 had already been passed without any provision of financial punishment in it.

"Therefore, it is totally irregular and illegal on the part of the Delhi Government to direct the Corporation to extract Rs.40,000 from farmhouse owners," he said, adding that under the DMC Act 347, no person without the explicit written permission of the Municipal Commissioner can change the use of land or building or allow any authority to change the same. Thus, charging farmhouse owners for any misuse and to make rules about it was the sole prerogative and right of the Corporation, and the Delhi Government had no jurisdiction over it.

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