Haryana government plans survey to identify illegal structures in Aravalis

GURUGRAM: The state government, along with the Faridabad district administration, has started the groundwork to identify illegal structures in Aravali forest areas.

This comes after the Supreme Court on July 23 ordered the Faridabad Municipal Corporation (MCF) not to spare any illegal structures in the Aravalis, including farmhouses, commercial establishments and religious structures, during the ongoing demolition drive in Khori village.

“We started the groundwork on Tuesday and will be able to map out a plan within three days for identifying illegal structures in the Aravalis by a survey,” said Raj Kumar, the Faridabad district forest officer. “A timeline will be marked for the survey. We are currently working on the logistics, manpower and mapping,” he said, adding that the survey will map all kinds of illegal structures in the Aravalis, not just farmhouses.

After the survey is conducted, the district administration will first send out notices to owners of the illegal structures, a senior official told TOI. The notices will include an appeal to the owners to demolish the structures on their own and will state that in case they fail to do so within a fixed timeline, the administration will raze the structures.

Haryana state information commissioner (SIC) Arun Sangwan had also recommended that the civic bodies of Gurgaon and Faridabad form a committee to ascertain the ownership of the farmhouses in the Aravalis on July 9. This order came when the commission was hearing a petition of IAS officer Ashok Khemka relating to the existence of 60 farmhouses in the Gurgaon and Faridabad Aravalis. Forest minister Kanwal Pal Gujjar had last year said a total of 60 illegal farmhouses were constructed in the Aravalis — 50 in Faridabad and 10 in Gurgaon — between 2000 and 2020.

The commission had directed the financial commissioner (revenue) that a committee consisting of the district forest officer, district town planner, district revenue officer, executive officer and municipal corporation officials be formed in the two districts to ascertain the ownership of the farmhouses in the Aravalis falling under their jurisdiction, and the panels submit their reports within two months.

Meanwhile, the Gurgaon district administration said that it cannot form a committee or carry out a survey on the SIC’s recommendation. “An order to constitute a committee or to carry out a survey to assess the owners of the farmhouses in Aravalis can be given by the state government, not SIC. The present SIC recommendations cannot be converted into an order,” a senior official from the Gurgaon district administration said. Faridabad officials too said they would form the panel only after getting an order in this regard from the state government.