The Hindu : New Delhi News : DDA fails to clear encroachments

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 12, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

DDA fails to clear encroachments

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Area MLA suspects nexus between DDA officials, police, a dairy owner and a power-lifting champion

UNAUTHORISED OCCUPATION: Some illegally-constructed buildings at Shalimar Majra in North-West Delhi .— Photo: R.V. Moorthy

NEW DELHI: Lakhs of residents of Shakur Basti and surrounding colonies in North-West Delhi are having to do without better civic amenities as the Delhi Development Authority has not been able to clear encroachments from an over two-acre plot of land -- valued at over Rs. 30 crores -- at Khasra No. 420 in Salimpur which was to have been used for creating various public facilities.

The two-time MLA from Shakur Basti, S.C. Vats, who has been fighting to get this land cleared of all encroachments for over two decades now, fears that some DDA officials in collusion with an Assistant Commissioner of Police, a dairy owner and a power-lifting champion have nefarious designs on this expensive plot of land which is situated on the busy Master Plan Road 43 connecting Britannia Chowk to Outer Ring Road.

For grabbing the two-acre plot, Dr. Vats said, some people had even forged the signatures of its original owner from whom it had been acquired. Also, he said, as the land from Khasra No. 414 to 419 had been converted from "unauthorised" to "regularised" by the Administration, those in illegal possession of Khasra 420 had even tried to claim that it was actually Khasra 419 so that the land was not acquired. The land records had been tampered with for the purpose, claims Dr. Vats.

However, in 2004, the then Divisional Commissioner G.K. Marwah conducted a re-demarcation of the area which established that the land in question was actually part of Khasra 420 of Salimpur under the Madipur Majra Revenue Estate and so its acquisition was correct. Thereafter, the land owning agency had also carried out some token demolition on the plot.

Dr. Vats lamented that the will to clear the plot -- on which huge buildings have come up illegally -- is completely lacking in DDA as its lower level officials have accepted bribes and the top bosses are wary of the strong lobby supporting illegal occupation.

"While the land was acquired in 1964 and the compensation paid to the farmer from whom it was taken, no government agency -- DDA or MCD -- has come forward to claim it. So, it is a clear case where the public money has been spent on acquiring a plot and then the same has been gifted to land sharks by those who should have protected and developed it,'' said the MLA.

Also, he demanded to know who would be responsible should any accident take place on the buildings which have come up illegally on the said plot. Stating that his meetings with the former and present Vice-Chairman of DDA in this connection had not yielded any result, the Congress leader wondered why a Special Task Force had not been constituted so far under the area Deputy Commissioner to clear the encroachments.

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