Neighbours spill beans on unauthorised construction

It is no secret that rampant unauthorised construction goes on in almost every nook and corner of Delhi. But if you thought nobody was looking, think again, reports Nivedita Khandekar.

It is no secret that rampant unauthorised construction goes on in almost every nook and corner of Delhi. But if you thought nobody was looking, think again.

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The Vigilance Department of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) receives maximum complaints from residents regarding unauthorised construction.

“We receive about 4,500 complaints every year. Of these, 40 per cent of the complaints are against unauthorised construction,” MCD’s Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) Pradeep Shrivastava said.

The other complaints include those for inferior quality of work or dereliction of duty, he said.

However, of the thousands of complaints received by the vigilance department, not all convert into cases or for that matter, result into conviction.

According to statistics from the department, regular departmental action (RDA) was taken against 469 MCD employees in 238 cases only, till date this year.

Compared to this, RDA was taken against 436 MCD personnel involved in 139 cases in 2008 while the same figures for 2007 were 486 persons in 216 cases.

Shrivastava said that the complaints first need to be verified. If they warrant a case against a particular employee, there are several procedures to be followed, which cause delay in action.

However, the official said, “We have also taken action against superintendent engineers or even deputy commissioners in the past.”

The action taken includes RDA like minor or major penalty. Major penalty can be something like reduction in the present scale of pay by two stages for two years with cumulative effect or reduction in pension by three per cent for one year.