Owners of razed homes will pay demolition bills

Delhiites whose properties were razed by MCD during last year’s High Court-ordered demolition drive, have a fresh shock coming their way. MCD plans to slap them with massive property tax bills including the costs incurred by the civic body in bringing down the illegal structures.

“Our demolition squads spent hours breaking down unauthorised constructions. We deployed heavy machinery. Thousands of people whose properties we demolished are yet to pay us for all this. We will now add the demolition charges to their property tax bills,” MCD commissioner KS Mehra told Hindustan Times. MCD has already created a separate head of accounts for this purpose, Mehra said — which means it is all but certain that the demolition charges will be collected this year.

Properties of over 6,000 people were targeted last year. “On an average, we demolished 500 properties per month. We had asked the owners to pay up, but most refused. We will now collect this money,” said a senior MCD official. According to him, the total amount due to MCD is Rs 2.35 crore.