Soil worth Rs. 50L stolen from MCG plot

Vishal Garg, the executive engineer of MCG, the complainant in the case, said that the civic body has reserved a two-acre plot in the village for constructing a sewerage treatment plant (STP).

Based on the complaint of Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), the Gurugram Police has registered a case against unidentified people for stealing soil estimated to be worth Rs. 50 lakh from a vacant MCG plot in Jhazgarh village in Sector 106, near Dwarka Expressway.

The MCG has reserved a two-acre plot for constructing an STP, where a 15-foot pit was illegally dug and the soil stolen. (Sourced)

In the FIR, the MCG has mentioned that the incident took place between May 11 and May 20, based on which the police registered a case of theft and trespassing under sections 379 and 447 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Rajinder Park police station on Friday night.

Vishal Garg, the executive engineer of MCG, the complainant in the case, said that the civic body has reserved a two-acre plot in the village for constructing a sewerage treatment plant (STP).

He said that 10 days ago, MCG officials were informed about the illegal excavation of civic land by locals, and upon visiting the spot, officials found that digging had been done up to 15 feet and soil excavated illegally.

“The MCG land is situated at a secluded spot, more than two kilometres from the village. Barely anyone goes that side. The accused seem to have taken advantage of this, dug a 15 feet pit and excavated the soil. Even locals took some time to notice the illegal activity. Once we were informed, we carried out an own investigation to ascertain the damages and subsequently, approached the Gurugram police,” said Garg.

MCG officials said that they reached an estimate on the total soil cost of Rs. 50 lakh, as per the assessment provided by private builders who use soil for levelling and other construction purposes.

An MCG official privy to the matter said that officials had managed to track one of the men who had transported the soil in his tractor. “Upon investigation, the man said that the work was carried out on the directions of a local politician. We confronted the local politician about the matter and she claimed that since there was no place for sewage disposal in the village, an empty pit was being dug to channel the sewage towards it. However, she said she had no knowledge about the whereabouts of the soil,” the official said.

Garg, however, declined to confirm this and said that matter is being investigated.

ASI Lavkesh Kataria, the investigating officer in the case, said that the police had started an investigation and are working on some leads.“It seems that the pit was a long-standing demand of the villagers to channelise rain and drain water to prevent flooding during monsoon. We are coordinating with locals for tracing the culprits,” said Kataria.

It is not the first time that a vacant plot of MCG has been used illegally. Two months ago, MCG officials had discovered that land records of a vacant three-acre plot worth Rs.12 crore in Balliawas had been illegally modified and transferred to seven people.