Khirki demolition angers villagers

Khirki villagers have alleged manipulation by authorities while carrying out demolition of encroachment for revive a water body. A park has been built on the dried up water body. HT reports

Khirki villagers have alleged manipulation by authorities while carrying out demolition of encroachment for revive a water body. A park has been built on the dried up water body.

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The demolition was ordered by the Delhi High Court on Friday. Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia too visited the village and tried to pacify families that were claiming faulty demolition action. She also expressed concern about saving the park.

The high court order was to remove encroachments to revive an erstwhile johar (small community water body) shown in revenue records covering 7.17 bigha (about 2.86 acres). A team including deputy commissioner revenue (South) Vivek Pande, Municipal Corporation of Delhi's Deputy Commissioner (South) S.K. Midha, sub divisional magistrate Juhi Mukherjee and Mehrauli Tehsildar Sameer Sharma demolished the boundary wall of the park apart from boundary walls of few houses on the northern side.

A large portion of R K Kaushik’s house was demolished. He said, “My house is part of Lal Dora (land where municipal bylaws are not applicable) and the deputy commissioner has given a no objection certificate for it. This plot of land was not part of demolition report. We were not even told about today’s demolition.”

Another resident, Khushal Singh, whose boundary wall was razed, alleged, “Kiran Walia has influenced the authorities. A dhaba with about 20 feet protruding portion has been left untouched. Money has definitely changed hands.”

However, Pande said, “Why should we do such a thing? In the first case, the court had granted stay for 650 sq yards and we demarcated that area. In the second case too, we followed the demarcation report filed earlier. These people should have registered their objections with the high court before the demarcation report was prepared.”