With rampant illegal constructions underway in the city, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) has cracked down on nearly 4,000 properties during the last one year. Apart from demolishing 2,468 properties, the civic body has sealed 183 properties in six administrative zones. Officials claimed the action against unauthorised construction was taken despite the Model Code of Conduct being enforced in the city for two times during the Delhi Assembly polls and later for the lok Sabha elections.
The action taken report against illegal construction from April 1, 2013 to March 31 this year suggests that the engineering department officials booked 1,984 property owners for raising illegal constructions out of which demolition orders were passed against 1,131 properties. “So far the officials have demolished 735 booked properties while the demolition action against the remaining properties will be taken soon,” said Yogendra Singh Mann, Director (Press & Information), North Delhi Municipal Corporation. Apart from this, the civic body officials also took swift action against under-construction properties demolishing 1,733 of them without any prior notice to the property owners. The corporation also recovered a sum of Rs 8.70 lakh as demolition charges from these property owners.
However, in some of these cases, illegal construction continued despite repeated notices and warnings to the builders or property owners forcing the officials register cases against them. The North Corporation has initiated prosecution against 48 property owners as illegal construction being raised by them posed risk to the public safety at large. While 14 cases each were registered in Civil line and Karol Bagh zones, 11 cases in Narela and nine cases in Rohini zone respectively were registered. In addition to this, the civic body also asked the Delhi Jal Board and the power discoms to disconnect water and power connections in 2,108 properties.
As far as demolition is concerned, the maximum actions were taken in Rohini zone where 833 properties were demolished. It was followed by the Civil line zone where 482 properties were demolished. In Narela, demolition action was executed against 345 properties where as in Karol Bagh zone, 324 properties were razed. In Sadar Paharganj and City zones, actions were taken against 299 and 185 properties respectively. The corporation also sealed 183 properties in all six zones for unauthorised constructions. It is noteworthy, that a nodal steering committee headed by Additional Commissioner (Engineering) of the Corporation fortnightly takes stock of the action taken against illegal construction. The steering committee was formed after the erstwhile MCD had assured the Delhi High Court about the measures to curb illegal construction.