In its bid to check unauthorised construction and encroachment on public land, Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has divided national Capital into 31 grids and a special task force (STF) has been formed under the direct control of the Vice-Chairman (VC) of Delhi Development Authority to carry out a survey across the city to identify and act on any encroachment on public roads and land.
According to officials, Government has made it abundantly clear to them that there shall be no encroachment on any public property, land and road. STF has been mandated to seek help from the law enforcing agencies and act accordingly.
The STF would be chaired by the VC of DDA and consist of commissioners of the three municipal corporations of Delhi, chairperson of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the CEO of Delhi Jal Board (DJB). The other members of STF would be Commissioner or Secretary of Transport, Secretary of Urban Development and Secretary of Revenue Department of the Delhi Government, Special Commissioner (law and order), Special Commissioner (Traffic) of Delhi Police, chief fire officer of Delhi and commissioner (planning) of the DDA.
Mandate of the STF would be to identify encroachments on Government land, suggest the course of action to the Centre with regard to unauthorised colonies in Delhi and oversee effective and proper enforcement of applicable laws by local bodies particularly about violation and unauthorised constructions.
The STF would also monitor the action taken by local bodies with respect to violations and identify the areas of congestion of traffic, suggest measures to deal with it, ensure that traffic management strategies are devised and implemented, besides overseeing compliance of the fire safety norms.
The STF would take immediate action regarding removal or demolition of encroachment and unauthorised constructions on public roads, streets, footpaths, pavements, parks or public space and act against erring officials in any local body. The STF would “direct the local bodies to provide its field staff with GPS-enabled cameras to take photographs and videos of violations and to take them as evidence for action against such violation”.
It may be recalled that the Centre had recently told the Supreme Court it has proposed to set up a special task force (STF) to oversee the enforcement and implementation of laws to deal with unauthorised construction and encroachment in Delhi after consulting all stakeholders.
The Government then told a Bench of Justices Madan B lokur and Deepak Gupta that during two meetings held on April 4 and April 9, it has been suggested by the authorities that “unauthorised occupation” and encroachment on public streets, pavements, footpaths, pedestrian streets and roads should be removed forthwith.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) ANS Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, handed over a note to the Bench in which the Government has given the details of meetings and issues deliberated upon.
However, the Bench told Nadkarni that there should be one official from the office of Delhi's lieutenant Governor in the STF.It said the task force would meet at least once a month and give its report to the lG's office and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Nadkarni said that in the Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021, no new street would be declared as commercial unless parking space was shown first. “Indeed, the large scale of construction of building beyond permissible FAR (floor area ratio), misuse of public land etc and other similar violation have to be stopped forthwith and a complete no tolerance to these illegal activities has to be shown,” he said in the note.
FAR is the ratio of a building's total floor area (gross floor area) to the size of the piece of land on which it is built.