‘Illegal construction rampant in Delhi, seal of 66% shut areas tampered’

Sixty six percent of the properties shut down in the Capital for illegal constructions over the last five years were found with their seals tampered with, and no concrete action against the violators was taken by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi amid “rampant corruption”, a Delhi assembly panel on urban development has said.

In its report on unauthorised constructions and encroachment-related issues, the Assembly’s nine-member standing committee of development, while flagging large scale violations, said that MCD has been “unable to implement the mechanism to check illegal constructions/encroachments and the erring officials behind them.”

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According to the report, which was finalised in March (HT has seen a copy of the report), of the 5,450 properties sealed in Delhi over the last five years, of which seals of 3,592 were tampered with.

“The committee directed urban development department to furnish details of First Information Report on tampering of seals of booked properties and the list of officers during whose tenure seals were tampered but the department did not furnish the requisite information....the committee found that MCD was just issuing notices and not taking any follow up action. This leads to conclusion that rampant corruption was prevalent, as violators were tampering the seals with connivance of MCD officials,” the report states.

The report also noted that 47,925 properties were booked for illegal constructions over the five-year period, with almost half of these falling under the erstwhile South MCD, out of which regularisation of illegality was carried out by the owners only in 1,226 cases, while demolition action was taken up in 16,903 cases.

The erstwhile North MCD booked 13,822 units out of which demolition took place in 7,122 cases; South MCD booked 23,455 units with 5,815 demolitions and East MCD booked 10,648 units, with demolition action taking place in 3,966 cases. The committee, which had examined the issues in sittings over the years 2020, 2021 and 2022, also observed that MCD was conducting “partial demolitions...which was for the sake of formality.”

“MCD has failed to control the seal tampering and is reluctant to take any action against erring officials,” the report observed.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in power in the erstwhile North, South and East corporations between 2007 and 2022.

The assembly panel recommended that a new mechanism be evolved to check illegal construction right at initial stage and MCD upload details of booked properties with its status on website along with prominent display boards outside the booked properties. “Monetary penalisation and disciplinary proceedings be started against erring officials,” the report sent to the corporation last week said. It also sought an action taken report in a month.

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A senior civic official said that the demolition actions on unauthorised constructions on private land are handled under Section 343 of DMC act and they usually take at least 25 days . “Encroachments on public roads and public land do not require any notices. As far as private properties are concerned, the properties are booked, notices are issued and further legal actions are taken.In some cases, where courts are monitoring the matter, the action is taken on priority,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

An MCD spokesperson said that the civic body will furnish the action taken on the observations and recommendations to the committee.

Atul Goyal, who heads URJA (United RWAs Joint Action)- an umbrella body of RWAs in Delhi, said there should be a third-party monitoring mechanism to ensure that these complaints are monitored.