37 illegal factory units in east Delhi’s Vishwas Nagar sealed

At least 37 units were sealed in Vishwas Nagar on Thursday during a drive carried out by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC). The action was taken on the directions of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee over the alleged misuse of residential premises for running factories.

“The drive started two hours late but we managed to seal 37 units, which were being run illegally from the area. However, officials didn’t face much resistance from factory owners during the drive,” a senior EDMC official, on condition of anonymity, said. The drive will continue on Monday.

Officials from building department also visited the residential flats which were declared as vacant by factory owners through an affidavit filed last week.

The drive started after the monitoring committee visited the residential area on August 3 and found rampant violation of norms.

“We found hundreds of small factories and godowns functioning out of residential units, in violation of Delhi Master Plan 2021. We have shared a list of 650 such factories with the EDMC for immediate sealing,”a member of monitoring committee said.

Afterwards, the EDMC started a survey of the area and issued 48-hour show cause notices to 1,970 defaulters. “Of them, we confirmed the sealing action against 130 and 37 were sealed on Thursday. The rest will be sealed from Monday,” BM Mishra, deputy commissioner, EDMC, said.

Of the 1,970 defaulters, the civic agency received replies from 1,000 factories owners. “Our teams will verify these addresses, whether they have shifted or not, demand an affidavit and recover misuse charge (which is 1.5 times the conversion charges) from them. After that, we will remove them from the list of defaulters,” Mishra said.

Till August 16, the civic agency has recovered misuse charges amounting to ₹1.76 crore from 125 owners. “Of the total amount, ₹57 lakh was received from 48 owners on August 16. The amount has been submitted on the basis of the assessment made by factory owners,” the EDMC official said.

Sealing started in the city last December, on the directions of the monitoring committee. In the last eight months, the three civic agencies have sealed at least 6,000 units. The drive came to a halt after the Delhi Development Authority amended the master plan for local shopping complexes. Later, the monitoring committee submitted a report to the apex court last month, pointing out the non-cooperation of civic agencies in the sealing drive.