Urbanised villages top on sealing list

After a lull of many months the demolition men of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) are back and are targetting posh areas of the city. The MCD was forced to stop its work earlier because they had no security cover from the police.

After a lull of many months the demolition men of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) are back and are targetting posh areas of the city. The MCD was forced to stop its work earlier because they had no security cover from the police.
According to sources, though sealing and demolition will be carried out in the entire city, urbanised villages will be a prime target as a lot of unauthorised construction has been carried out there recently.
Since most of the urbanised villages are located in south Delhi, major action will be carried out in south as well as the central zones of the MCD.
“All those properties in urbanised villages, such as Munirka, Basant Gaon, Lado Sarai, Shahpur Jat, Mehrauli and Katwaria Sarai, where construction was carried out after 2007 are liable to MCD action. We didn’t have adequate police force earlier but now that the Commonwealth Games are over, we have restarted our drive,” said a senior MCD official.
MCD officials said though properties in urbanised villages that were constructed before 2007 have been given protection under the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act for Urbanised Villages 2008, any property which has been constructed after that can face sealing and demolition action.
“Even those properties in urbanised villages that have been given protection and have carried out illegal construction will face demolition action,” said a senior MCD official. Sealing and demolition action will be carried out in residential as well as commercial areas.
The south zone of the civic agency on Wednesday had taken action against three such properties. The central zone of the MCD has also taken action against 48 properties.
The sealing and demolition drive will spell trouble for scores of students studying at IIT and Jawaharlal Nehru University as a number of them stay in areas such as Lado Sarai and Munirka.

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