'Will be back if MCD fails'

The corporation has been clearly told that court commissioners and the monitoring committee will be back if the alternative mechanism within the MCD framework fails, reports Harish V Nair.Demolition squad demolished

The bulldozers are back in Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s control but Delhi High Court has sounded it a warning.

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The corporation has been clearly told that court commissioners and the monitoring committee will be back if the alternative mechanism within the MCD framework fails, and allegations of corruption and collusion with the builder mafia resurface.

“This is only a temporary measure and the working and results will be observed and verified by the court after the six month trial period is over,” said a bench of justices Mukul Mudgal and Manmohan.

Accepting most of the corporation’s suggestions for an alternative mechanism, the court approved a three-tier scheme with accountability fixed for officers ranging from junior engineers to additional commissioners. The additional commissioners will be directly responsible for enforcing the law in a time-bound manner.

Junior engineers and assistant engineers will now be responsible for detecting unauthorised construction under the supervision of executive engineers. Superintending engineers have been asked to set up separate teams for detection and demolition, to avoid corruption.

A coordination committee will meet every month. It will comprise officers of the rank of additional commissioner in the corporation, Delhi Development Authority, the Land and Development Office and the police.

The court also directed that all the maps, master plan of Delhi, zonal plans, sub-zonal plans and layout plans of every colony clearly indicating the ownership of the land will have to be posted on MCD, DDA and Delhi Government websites.

This is for the public to ascertain the actual ownership before purchasing a property and to prevent encroachment on public land.

The corporation has also been asked to prepare a scheme within four months to protect and utilise public land recovered from encroachers so far.