The court ordered anti-encroachment drive continued in Dehradun with 280 encroachments being demolished and 185 being marked on Wednesday. A total of 2196 encroachments have been demolished, 4674 have been marked and 88 buildings have been sealed so far.
Chairing a meeting to review the anti-encroachment drive, Additional Chief Secretary Om Prakash reiterated that the campaign to remove encroachments from public roads will be expedited. He said that the Supreme Court directions will be followed in removal of encroachments from gated colonies. If the colony residents wish to raise their points, they can approach the High Court/Supreme court. A letter had been sent to the commission of Uttar Pradesh Housing and Development Board, lucknow regarding action to be taken in case the houses built on the board’s land in Nehru Colony, Indiranagar and Doon Vihar are found to be encroachments and have to be removed as per the rules. Regarding this, additional engineer Ramesh Chandra from Saharanpur has conducted a site inspection. He said that though no instructions had been received from the board headquarters yet, necessary action will be initiated immediately after the directions are received. The task force head and Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority vice chairman Ashish Kumar Srivastav said that as per the requirement of the board, necessary arrangements will be facilitated by the task force for removal for encroachments.
Govt to approach HC seeking extension
State Urban Development and Housing Minister Madan Kaushik said that citing rain and other issues, the State Government will approach the High Court to seek extension of the deadline for completion of the anti-encroachment drive. It should be mentioned here that at the current pace the Government is unlikely to complete the drive in the stipulated four-week period.
Negi questions inaction against encroachment by prominent school
Accusing the State Government of partiality in execution of the anti-encroachment drive, the Jansangharsh Morcha has questioned why no action has been taken against a prominent school on Rajpur Road which has encroached upon about half of the road leading to Subhash Road.
The Morcha head Raghunath Singh Negi said, “It is surprising that no action has been taken in case of a road connecting Rajpur Road to Subhash Road, half of which has been encroached upon by Saint Joseph’s Academy school. According to the Public Works Department measurements, this road is 18.5 metres or 61 feet wide but encroachment by this school has narrowed it to 30-35 feet. The Government should first raze encroachments on Rajpur Road but the authorities are dithering. We do not support encroachment but the drive should not be used mainly to harass the poor,” he said.
3600 notices sent so far to encroachers
Around 3600 notices have been sent by Municipal Corporation Dehradun (MCD) to the encroachers so far while acting on the order of the Supreme Court. The apex court while modifying the earlier order of the State High Court on the matter of removing encroachment had ordered the authorities concerned to send notices to the encroachers except those who encroach the Government roads and to give three weeks to the recipients of the notices to present their views of the matter with documents before such squatters are razed down.
It is, further, learnt that MCD has also formed two teams for sending such notices as well as for receiving the documents to be sent by those who are receiving the notices. When asked whether notices are being sent too to the Government institutions situated on the encroached lands near Rispana river, Vijay Kumar Jogdande, the municipal commissioner, said that they are following a norm while sending notices and the same would be sent to all who have encroached the government lands. He, further ,said that the first phase of the work of sending such notices is nearing completion. “Things are going on satisfactorily,” he added.
As per information, MCD has formed two teams for the task. One team is tasked to send notices to the people who have been marked as encroachers. The team is consisting of around 10 officers from the civic body. The second team which comprises two officers is tasked to collect and verify the replies and the documents being sent by the recipients of such notices to substantiate their points.
As per the officials, around 3600 notices have been sent to people who have encroached lands along Rispana and Bindal rivers aside from Sahaspur, Ajabpur, Deepnagar, and some other areas. Furthermore, the team has started receiving the replies to the notices from Wednesday. It is learnt that around 19 applications with documents have been received from the people from the Rispana riverside areas and 16 such applications from those residing in the vicinity of Bindal river.
The team is about to complete the first phase of the work which would be followed by the hearing session. Speaking of the matter, Jogdande further said that after the documents are received and verified the demolition drive would be launched against the real encroachers.
When asked about whether such notices are being sent to the Government institutions situated on the Rispana riverbed areas, he said that no institution, whether Government or private, would be spared if they are found to encroach Government lands. “All of them would be sent notices.
In case they fail to submit replies to the notices in three weeks such properties would be razed down under the anti-encroachment drive,” he said.