The Hindu : New Delhi News : MCD slows down demolition drive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 15, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

MCD slows down demolition drive

Sandeep Joshi

During the past three months the civic body has targeted only 1,647 properties

NEW DELHI: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which began its citywide demolition drive in mid-December last year in the wake of a Delhi High Court order, has slowed down the exercise over the past few weeks. During the past three months the civic body has managed to target only 1,647 properties against the more than 18,000 unauthorised constructions that have come up between 2001 and 2005.

The drive that began on a high note with demolition squads targeting illegal properties across the city has now slowed down as less than a dozen structures are being targeted on a daily basis. Also, instead of targeting unauthorised properties in all the 12 civic zones as was being done earlier, the civic body is now covering only a few zones on a single day. And after the much-talked-about demolitions at upmarket M.G. Road area in South Delhi, no "big fish" has being targeted.

For instance in the past one-week, the demolition squads targeted not more than a couple of properties in various zones, while earlier this figure used to be more than a dozen in each zone. On Tuesday also, demolition squads took action in only five zones targeting not more than a couple of properties in each zone. The areas covered included Patel Nagar, Vasant Kunj, Vikas Puri, Tilak Nagar and Bhajanpura.

Of the 1,647 properties targeted till Tuesday, 857 were commercial and 790 residential. Of these 161 residential and 160 commercial were razed, while 545 residential and 538 commercial properties were partly demolished. The civic body officials have so far sealed 139 commercial and 84 residential properties.

"At this pace, we will take more than a couple of years to clear all illegal and unauthorised structures across the Capital. The slow pace is mainly due to lack of manpower and unavailability of police personnel. Moreover, manual demolition of illegal structures in dense colonies is consuming more time," said a senior MCD official.

In the urgency to clear all the mess in the city, routine work in the civic body was getting affected, he added.

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