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Allahabad High Court raps LDA for demolition at Sahara Shahar

Special Correspondent

“No demolition between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m.; restore land to company”

Demolition carried out without serving the mandatory notice on the company: Sahara
No map of the structures built inside the Sahara Shahar were given for approval: LDA

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court granted interim relief to Sahara India Limited in the case relating to the demolition carried out at the Sahara Shahar here by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) late on Wednesday night.

A two-member bench of Justices D.P. Singh and Balkrishna Narain directed the State government that demolition drive should not be carried out from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. The Court not only pulled up the LDA for carrying out the late night demolition but also directed the government to restore possession of the land to the company.

Delivering its order on a writ petition filed by the Sahara India Commercial Corporation Limited, the court directed the State Chief Secretary to submit the compliance report of the order within 24 hours. It permitted the company to carry out its construction work in order to safeguard its property.

The State government has decided to appeal against the High Court order in the Supreme Court.

Sahara petition

The Sahara petition had challenged the late-night operation carried out to remove the alleged encroachment from the 30-metre wide zonal road and a green belt area. The zonal road reportedly extends 500 metres inside the Sahara Shahar premises. As the police cordoned off the area, over two dozen bulldozers and earth-moving machines were used to raze the alleged encroachments.

Terming the action as illegal, a Sahara spokesman alleged that the demolition was carried out without serving the mandatory notice on the company and that the LDA’s move violated the Uttar Pradesh planning and development rules.

A LDA spokesman said the demolition was legal and no rules were violated. He said the zonal road and the green belt were mentioned in the Lucknow Master Plan and the constructions carried out on them were illegal.

Dismissing Sahara’s charge that no prior notice had been served, it stated that a meeting on June 13, 2008 by the LDA Vice-Chairman was attended by Amitabh Roy and J.C. Kukreti of the Sahara Group. The spokesman said the Sahara representatives admitted that the road shown in the Master Plan was in the possession of the company and it would demolish the illegal structures.

Subsequently, the 1400-metre-long wall on the side of the Gomti river embankment and the 400-metre-long wall on the eastern side were razed by the company in the night of June 17-18, the LDA spokesman said. Since the structures on the zonal road were not removed, they were razed by the LDA. He said the zonal road was public property and the 45-metre-wide portion was green belt where no constructions were allowed.

The LDA has stated that no map of the structures built inside the Sahara Shahar were given to the LDA for approval. Around 270 acres of land were given to the Sahara Group by the LDA and the Lucknow Nagar Nigam in 1994 and 1995. Of this, 140 acres were reserved for developing a green belt and the remaining was meant for residential and commercial purposes.

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