Need a month to reply to farmhouse owners' letters: Noida authority to tell court

Need a month to reply to farmhouse owners’ letters: Noida authority to tell court

NOIDA: The Noida Authority will approach the Allahabad high court to seek an extension for responding to the owners of farmhouses who have raised objections against a drive to demolish the structures. Over 100 owners of farmhouses along the Yamuna in Sector 135 have sent their objections to the authority so far.

Authority officials said each of the documents ran into hundreds of pages and would need much scrutiny. According to them, a month would at least be required to respond to the objections.

The high court had on June 14 given 10 days to farmhouse owners to file their objections and another 10 to the authority to respond to them and decide its next course of action. The court had asked the authority to maintain the status quo during this period.

“Given the sheer number of documents, 10 days’ time is too short to respond to each petition.
We need at least a month for that. We will appeal in the court to allow us an extension. We are
preparing a list of owners so that they can be answered,” said an authority official.
The official, however, did not make it clear if demolitions would continue during this period or
would be halted.
Most farmhouse owners who filed petitions in the court have their registered associations. Along
with arguments explaining why their properties should not be demolished, the owners have also
attached their registry papers to support their claims. Officials said most of these registries had
been done either from Sadar or the Dadri tehsils.
Officials insisted that the Yamuna floodplains, where these farmhouses are located, were a
notified area and no construction could be allowed there. As of now, more than 100 families,
especially the elderly, live in the area.
The authority officials said the objections were helping them identify the actual owners of the
farmhouses. The authority has so far not received any objection from the owners of the 124
farmhouses that have already been demolished.
In their objections to the authority, the farmhouse owners pointed out that none of their
properties could be dubbed illegal. They cited a 2016 notification issued by the Union ministry of
water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation that clarified that construction was
prohibited only on “active” floodplain areas. “Our properties are not on the active floodplains.
The area where they are built is a non-active zone,” one of the petitions read.

The petitioners also referred to a 2011 order of the high court, which prohibits construction
within 500 metres of the highest flood level (HFL) of the Ganga in Prayagraj. They claimed their
farmhouses were not on the highest flood level.
The letters also questioned Noida’s authority in carrying out the demolitions, saying that Nangla
Nangli and its surrounding villages, where the maximum number of farmhouses are built, were
not notified under the Uttar Pradesh Industrial Area Development Act.