Noida begins survey of illegal farmhouses on floodplains

The Noida authority will demolish all illegal farmhouses after it completes a survey of all such structures built on the floodplains of the Yamuna and Hindon rivers

The Noida authority will demolish all illegal farmhouses after it completes a survey of all such structures built on the floodplains of the Yamuna and Hindon rivers. However it has not fixed a deadline for the completion of the survey, officials said on Tuesday.

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Teams of the authority’s land department comprising revenue officials are visiting several areas, including sectors 129, 130, 132 and 135, to identify the illegal structures and prepare the data, officials added.

According to officials, the authority started the drive against illegal structures on the floodplains after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered action against all unauthorised buildings in each district in May this year. The Noida authority has so far demolished at least 70 farmhouses in the last one month, officials said.

“Our survey is in progress. But we cannot say when it will be completed. We are demolishing illegal farmhouses on the floodplains as and when we are provided with an adequate police force to carry out the job,” Ritu Maheshwari, chief executive officer of the Noida authority, said.

Officials said the authority’s teams are counting not only the number of structures, but also the type of construction, the number of floors, extent of damage done to ecology, the kind of material used in construction and the legal status, etc.

“We cannot reveal the date and location of the next drive because it may affect the operation in terms of law and order if people gather at the site,” said a Noida authority official, requesting anonymity.

Meanwhile, experts termed the survey and the drive an eyewash.

Environmentalist Akash Vashishtha, a member of the Gautam Budh Nagar district Ganga committee--a statutory body constituted to protect rivers-- said, “The action by the authority is cosmetic, because even in sectors 150 and 151, where a drive was conducted last week, many illegal farmhouses are still operational and dumping waste into the river. Also, why is the Noida authority hesitating to demolish illegal structures despite the Ganga committee giving orders to do so?”

According to data available with the Noid authority, illegal farmhouses and other illegal structures are built on at least 5,000 hectares of the Yamuna and Hindon floodplains in Noida which are spread over an area of 16,000 hectares.