Gurugram: 4,000 more shanties demolished along Golf Course Road

GURUGRAM: The department of town and planning (DTCP) continued with its anti-encroachment drive in Saraswati Kunj along Golf Course Road on Monday and razed around 4,000 shanties. On Thursday and Friday, the DTCP’s enforcement team razed over 3,000 and 5,000 shanties, respectively, in the colony.

A team, led by district town planner RS Batth, carried out the demolition drive in the presence of over 200 police personnel. Officials said the DTCP will now chalk out a plan to get walls and gates constructed in the residential colony, and also keep a tab on any further illegal construction.

“We will carry out a recce of Saraswati Kunj on a regular basis. More than 90% of the land under DTCP has been cleared now, and only one or two pockets are left, which will be removed in the coming days,” Batth said. “If someone tries to rebuild the shanties, then strict action will be taken against them.”

Notably, a few commercial establishments operating from residential plots in the colony that were sealed earlier but later de-sealed after depositing fines have been asked to remove their structures within a timeframe. “If such activities are not stopped, we will get FIRs lodged against their owners,” warned Batth.

Nearly 15,000 shanties had come up in the area despite a ban on construction due to ongoing court cases over allotment of plots to multiple people. 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.