E-Paper
Enclave: Will Commissioner?s warning help?
A WEEK is a long time in politics, goes an adage. Otherwise too, when it comes to an imbroglio as murky as the one pertaining to Nehru Enclave, seven days could stretch to any length of time. In this context, the meeting convened by Commissioner RK Mittal on Monday with senior administration, police and LDA officials to flush-out the anti-socials, who have illegally grabbed flats in Nehru Enclave, had nothing much to offer.
A WEEK is a long time in politics, goes an adage. Otherwise too, when it comes to an imbroglio as murky as the one pertaining to Nehru Enclave, seven days could stretch to any length of time. In this context, the meeting convened by Commissioner RK Mittal on Monday with senior administration, police and LDA officials to flush-out the anti-socials, who have illegally grabbed flats in Nehru Enclave, had nothing much to offer.
The residents of Nehru Enclave, it appears have no choice but to learn to live in the company of the student mafia. Or, what effect would yet another warning to be delivered by the LDA this time on the order of the Commissioner have on these politically well-connected hooligans? Deadlines after deadlines issued by the civic agency to the flat-grabbers have come and gone but the latter continue to remain as safely ensconced as ever.
On Monday, however, it was Commissioner RK Mittal’s turn to repeat what the LDA authorities have already said several times over on getting the encroachers evicted from Enclave. He (Mittal) asked LDA Vice-Chairman BB Singh to identify the illegal occupants, give them a week’s public notice to vacate the premises voluntarily and register a case against them if they fail to do so.
“The illegal occupants should be given a week’s notice either to get the flat allotted in their name by depositing its full cost. If they fail to do so, then the LDA should register a case against them and evict them forcibly,” said the Commissioner. He said steps should be taken to ensure that these people do not reoccupy these flats. Earlier, the LDA officials told Mittal that they had already short-listed the 110 illegal occupants, who were given similar opportunity to vacate these flats voluntarily several time in the past also.
The LDA officials undertook the first, and what now also appears to be the last, eviction drive in the Enclave on April 15. On May 20, the city’s development regulator had put out a public notice warning unauthorised occupants to vacate their flats by May 25 failing which they would be evicted.
Likewise, the defaulters were asked to deposit the outstanding amount against them with the department latest by June 10 to avoid eviction proceedings. But nothing happened.
