Cops drag feet, demolition drive turns damp squib

The district town planning (DTP-enforcement) could not carry a demolition drive today as the police failed to provide assistance at the eleventh hour.

The district town planning (DTP-enforcement) could not carry a demolition drive on Monday as the police failed to provide assistance at the eleventh hour.

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The enforcement wing was supposed to carry the anti-encroachment drive against unauthorised shops, dhabas, wine and beer shops and other constructions in the restricted 30-metre belt of the 27.5-km Gurgaon-Faridabad highway.

“As many as 25 illegal structures such as shops and dhabas were supposed to be demolished on Monday,” said Kalyana Singh, a junior engineer, DTP-enforcement.

The enforcement wing, in the past nine months, had sent several notices to the owners to remove their unauthorised shops on their own.
The enforcement wing had fixed the demolition date 15 days ago and had sent the request for the police support accordingly.

“The police failed to support us on Monday morning. We returned disappointed and this will send a wrong message to encroachers,” said Anil Dabas, district town planner (enforcement).

“This has happened at least thrice in the past one month when the police did not provide us assistance,” said Dabas.

Earlier, on May 10 and 14, the DTP enforcement department had failed to carry the drive it had planned in Bhondsi and Sohna owing to lack of police support.