News: Gurugram: DTCP razes 3,000 shanties along Golf Course Road-06-05-2022
Local goons and land sharks have been charging ocupants— mostly daily wagers, small shopkeepers and domestic staff— a monthly rent of Rs 2,000-Rs 2,500 from the occupants, officials said.
GURUGRAM: The enforcement team of the department of town and country planning (DTCP) on Thursday carried out a major demolition drive in Saraswati Kunj along Golf ourse Road, and razed over 3,000 shanties.
Local goons and land sharks have been charging ocupants— mostly daily wagers, small shopkeepers and domestic staff— a monthly rent of Rs 2,000-Rs 2,500 from the occupants, officials said. Nearly 15,000 shanties have come up in the area despite a ban on construction due to ongoing court cases over allotment of plots to multiple people.
On Thursday, a team, led by district town planner RS Batth, carried out the demolition drive in the presence of 150 policemen. “We have cleared two out of the 10 pockets completely by razing each and every illegal structure. The drive will continue on Friday and then again on Monday with focus on areas near Paras hospital, home to illegal hutments,” he said.
If the offenders reconstruct the shanties or are found involved in any sort of illegal construction, the department will get FIRs registered against them,” the DTP (enforcement) said.
The issue of illegal shanties came up at the recent grievance committee meeting chaired by CM Manohar Lal Khattar, where directions were given to raze them. In January, the enforcement team razed over 1,000 shanties and a four-storey building and sealed 10 commercial establishments running from residential plots in the colony.
Set up in 1983, Saraswati Kunj has been under a legal tussle since 2004, when only 4,000 houses could be accommodated in the colony after the cooperative group allegedly allotted plots to 9,000 applicants in exchange for money. On the ground, it has allotted only 1,500 plots so far. In 2016, the state government formed a commission headed by retired IAS officer SP Sharma to identify the original owners of the plots and suggest a way out of the stalemate. The matter is, at present, in the Punjab and Haryana high court.
