Will demolish wrongly sanctioned construction project in Rishikesh: State to HC

The Uttarakhand government on Wednesday informed the state high court that it will demolish the contentious wrongly sanctioned construction project in Rishikesh and take action for compounding violations at the stage of sanctioning the construction plan by the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) within one month.

The case involves a building plan approved on December 21, 2024, in Awas Vikas Colony in Rishikesh. The approved project was presented as a single-dwelling floor plan. However, photographs submitted as evidence revealed a four-story structure under construction, which the court noted starkly contradicts the sanctioned proposal.

The division bench of Chief Justice G Narendar and Justice Alok Mahra expressed serious concerns over alleged violations in the construction project in Rishikesh during a hearing of a writ petition on Wednesday. The court observed discrepancies between the sanctioned building plan and the actual construction

Abhijay Negi, counsel of the petitioner Pankaj Kumar Aggarwal, said Garhwal Commissioner Vinay Shakar Pandey, who is also the chairman of MDDA, and MDDA vice chairman Bansidhar Tiwari informed the HC that the wrongly sanctioned construction project in Rishikesh will be demolished.

During its hearing in the matter on April 2, the HC order noted, “The fact that even compounding has already been calculated even before sanctioning the building plan, probably would be the first of its kind in the history of the Development Authority anywhere in the country. It is but an indicator of the level of corrupt practices adopted by the Development Authority”.

The HC order further noted, “Interestingly, the plan approval comes with compounding area calculation, i.e. even at the stage of sanctioning the plan, the Authority has already acknowledged what would be the extent of violation in the times to come and what is the extent they would be compounding”.