In a major crackdown against land grabbers, the Department of Town and Country Planning has got 10 FIRs registered against 100 landowners for illegally carving out 15 colonies in the district. These colonies were being developed on nearly 110 acres, including six illegal colonies in Farrukhnagar, three in Pataudi, two in Sohna, one each in Bhondsi, Sidhrawali, Bilaspur and Bohdakalan. The department prior to moving the police carried out demolition drives and issued several warnings, but to no avail.
We issued orders asking landowners remove the illegal structures themselves but they failed to do so, forcing us to carry out demolition drives. They were trying to rebuild these demolished structures and thus we had to take the action. An official, DTCP
According to the complaint filed by the department, these colonies were carved out on agricultural land with a licence from the Town and Country Planning Department. “We had served show-cause notices on these landowners and got no satisfactory answers. We issued orders that they remove the illegal structures themselves but they failed to do so, forcing us to carry out demolition drives. These landowners were trying to rebuild these demolished structures and thus we had to take action,” said an official of the DTCP.
In the past six months, the department carried out 70 demolition drives in which more than 100 illegal colonies spread over 500 acres were razed costing lakhs of rupees. Through these recovery notices, the department has directed the landowners and offenders to deposit cost incurred in the demolition exercises. The cost of the demolition drive ranges from Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh, depending on the area and the equipment used. The cost of hiring an earthmover is between Rs 15,000 and Rs 2000, whereas, other heavy machines cost Rs 2.5 to 3 lakh for a few hours apart from the food for the staff and cops. District Town Planner (enforcement) Manish Yadav said the department had incurred a huge amount during the demolition drives of the illegal colonies, which was liable to be paid by the offender under Section 10(3) of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Act, 1975, for which the demand notices had been issued to the offenders.
As per the notice, if the offenders failed to deposit the requisite amount within the prescribed time limit, the department would recommend the Deputy Commissioner and Revenue Department to recover the amount as arrears from land revenue. Before carrying out the demolition drive, the show-cause notices and restoration orders were given by the department, according to which it was clear that if the landowner did not restore the land then demolition action would be taken by the department, but the recovery of dues would be at the disposal of the landowner.
