150 illegal shanties, boundary walls demolished in Sector 53

GURUGRAM:Over 150 illegal shanties, boundary walls of plots, stores and other buildings were demolished and some structures sealed in a large scale demolition drive on Friday in Saraswati Kunj society in Sector 53.

The drive was carried out by enforcement wing of town and country planning department (DTCP), which had issued notices to the violators for building without getting building plans sanctioned and in violation of rules and regulations.

Notices were also issued to the residents for building structures, running commercial activities without permission from the department, said Ved Prakash Sehrawat, DTP, enforcement. “There are large scale violations in the colony. A demolition and sealing drive has been started and it will be carried out in all the blocks,” he added.

The authority on Friday demolished over 150 shanties spread over an acre of land, boundary walls of 11 plots, 13 structures being used as stores and three industrial sheds. A large warehouse of foodgrains and similar materials was sealed by officials. The DTCP team was accompanied by a Gurugram police team.

The town country planning also appealed to the residents that they should not carry out any construction in the colony without any prior approval from the competent authority. “The houses built in violation of rules and without permission will face demolition,” said Amit Madholia.

Residents of the area were, however, critical of the department’s move and said that it did not follow its own rules while carrying out the drive. “Notices have to be sent by post and pasted on the structures. This did not happen and is against the spirit of law,” said Kalyan Singh, a member of the RWA.

Meanwhile, taking strict cognizance of illegal constructions, the enforcement wing of MCG also carried out a sealing drive in zone 1. The MCG team sealed 16 buildings in Jyoti Park, Krishna colony, New Colony and Lakshman Vihar area as these were constructed by owners without getting plans sanctioned from the corporation.

Officials said notices were sent to the building owners but they did not give satisfactory replies.

HT PHOTO Officials of DTCP also sealed a large warehouse, which had come up in violation of building rules.