In five days of sealing, East Delhi civic body collects ₹12 cr as fine

EDMC had, on August 16, initiated the sealing drive for alleged misuse of residential premises for running factories on the directions of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee. The sealing drive started in Vishwas Nagar.

Within five days of initiating sealing action against factories running illegally from residential complexes in Vishwas Nagar, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has recovered over ₹12 crore as misuse charge (fine).

The civic agency had served sealing notices to 1,970 defaulters and received replies from 1,000 factories owners. (Sonu Mehta/HT Photo)

EDMC had, on August 16, initiated the sealing drive for alleged misuse of residential premises for running factories on the directions of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee. The sealing drive started in Vishwas Nagar after the monitoring committee visited the residential area on August 3 and found rampant violation of norms.

Following the monitoring committee’s inspection, the civic agency had served sealing notices to 1,970 defaulters and received replies from 1,000 factories owners.

“While the sealing action started from August 16, our teams started inspecting misused premises and issuing notices soon after the visit of monitoring committee members. This forced defaulters to shift from the place and deposit the misuse charge,” said a senior EDMC official.

“The ‘misuse charge’ is the amount taken for the period when the property is being misused. It is submitted on the basis of the self assessment made by factory owners,” said BM Mishra, deputy commissioner, EDMC.

Officials from the buildings department are now visiting the residential flats, which were declared as vacant by factory owners through an affidavit filed last week. “Our teams are verifying these addresses, whether they have shifted or not, demanding an affidavit and recovering misuse charge (which is 1.5 times the conversion charges) from them. After that, we will remove them from the list of defaulters,” said an official.

Till Tuesday night, it has sealed 102 units and the action will continue on Thursday.