Huda's 270 acres in private hands

Huda documents reveal that about 269 acres of prime land in the city has been encroached upon by land sharks over the past several years. But the authority has done precious little to recover it.

Huda documents reveal that about 269 acres of prime land in the city has been encroached upon by land sharks over the past several years. But the authority has done precious little to recover it.

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Huda officials said encroachers grabbed about 103 acres in Sector 33-34. Similarly, nearly 70 acres in Sectors 24 and 25A are to yet be reclaimed by the authority. Huda, however, was able to free 4.5 acres on June 15.

Huda administrator Praveen Kumar said, "Our effort is to reclaim the encroached prime land. We need to step up our efforts."

On occupied plots, locals had built shops, hutments, places of worship and cremation grounds. At some places, slums too have come up on them.

Gurgaon's depleting green belts have bore the maximum brunt of the rampant encroachment. Land sharks grabbed about 6.5 acres of green belt at Islampur village.

"The attempts by Huda to recover the encroached land were met with stiff resistance by encroachers. In most cases, they have to take the support of the police to launch anti-encroachment drives," said Jagjit Singh, a Gurgaon resident. The administrator admitted that anti-ecroachment squads often face attacks from encroachers.