NEW DELHI: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation and South Delhi Municipal Corporation will begin removal of all types of encroachment on public and government lands, following a Supreme Court order.
On Thursday, a public notice from the two civic bodies appeared in newspapers, asking the general public to begin the process of removing encroachments.“Since the order came from the Supreme Court and a public notice has already been issued, the process can begin any day. And it will be rigorous action,” said a North MCD official.
“Extensive encroachment removal actions/ prosecution actions u/s 321/461/ 466 A of DMC Act against the violator/offender will be taken without any further notice, and items so placed on public/government land will be seized at the cost of encroacher,” stated the notice.Last week, the Supreme Court directed the North MCD to remove all encroachments from pavements in residential areas and gave a time period of 15 days for completing the action. The court said that the cost of eviction must be recovered from the encroacher as land revenue.
“Sincerely requesting all concerned to remove such encroachments and obstructions themselves before we get there with man and machine,” North MCD Commissioner Varsha Joshi tweeted.“In any colony where the footpath is found to be encroached upon, strict action should be taken against the owner and the encroachment should be removed from the footpath,” a bench headed by Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta had said while passing orders in the M C Mehta case.
“Implementation is not proper; the target should be on commercialised encroachment. Encroachment removal drive in residential area won’t be fruitful. The local activities by encroachers are skipped by the MCD and illegal encroachers run away the moment they hear that officials are coming. Meetings with RWAs and market association should have happened,” said Saurabh Gandhi, Secretary, United Residents of Delhi.