NEW DELHI: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is likely to send "show cause" notices on Wednesday to at least nine Congress leaders whose names have appeared in the media for having carried out unauthorised constructions in their properties. They include Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Delhi Assembly Speaker Chaudhary Prem Singh, Delhi Congress president Ram Babu Sharma and Delhi Finance Minister A. K. Walia.

The decision came after a marathon meeting of senior MCD officials on Tuesday evening. The MCD has decided to ask these leaders to clarify their position on alleged illegal constructions carried out as reported in the media and later mentioned by the Delhi High Court in its order. Action will be taken against these leaders after studying the replies forwarded by them.

Apart from the seven names mentioned by the court that includes that of vice-chairperson of Delhi Jal Board Anjali Rai, Congress MLAs Mukesh Sharma and Prahlad Singh Sawhney, the civic body has added names of Congress MLA Mala Ram Gangwal and the party Councillor Suresh Yadav. However, the name of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Jai Bhagwan Aggarwal has been dropped from the list after he removed unauthorised structures from his property.

The MCD is also considering addition of the name of BJP Councillor Vijender Gupta to the list as he allegedly runs his office from the basement of his building. "Mr. Gupta lives in a group housing society flat where technically the owner of the building is the society. So we are taking legal opinion whether to serve notice on Mr. Gupta or the society of which he is a member. Soon we will decide on it and serve notice to whosoever is guilty," said a senior MCD official.

It is also learnt that the MCD is preparing a separate list of 30-odd prominent politicians belonging to different parties who have carried out illegal constructions and their names have figured in different media reports. All Deputy Commissioners have been asked to speed up the entire exercise so that the MCD is ready with the list as soon as possible. "It is getting more complicated for us as the infighting between two major sections of the Congress in Delhi is making things difficult for us," the official added.

Meanwhile, the civic body has decided to slow down its demolition exercise mainly due to lack of security personnel who are preoccupied with their arrangements for the Republic Day celebrations.

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