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November      Last updated: Nov 20,  5:00 p.m.

Congress politicising demolition drive in Delhi

Pramod Kumar

The Congress protest against the recent demolition drive launched by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to remove the unauthorised constructions, has exposed the Congress-builder mafia nexus in the Capital. It proves that the Congress leaders are directly involved in encroachments and are patronising the builder mafia for political gains.

The Congress allegation that the MCD is deliberately targetting its strongholds to remove the encroachments, is totally baseless and aims at misleading Delhiites. The fact is that the entire demolition drive is being carried out under the direct supervision of the State Government. The Chief Secretary of the government is personally supervising it.

According to the MCD sources, the Delhi High Court had few months back summoned the chiefs of local agencies, like DDA, MCD, Chief Secretary of Delhi, etc., and had ordered removal of the unauthorised constructions in Delhi. After few weeks, the Delhi Government constituted a five member high level committee with its Chief Secretary as Chairman and Municipal Commissioner and Secretary Urban Development Department as members, to effectively implement the High Court directives. Now this demolition drive is being monitored by this committee which is fully working under the directions of the State Government. Since, MCD is just an implementing authority, it is unfair to blame it.

Apart from the High Court order, the demolition drive also includes the directions of the Special Task Force (STF) set up in 1997 by the Deve Gowda government to remove illegal constructions in Delhi. Even now whenever the STF receives any such complaint, it refers it to the Chief Secretary of Delhi who sends it to the MCD for action. The Lt. Governor of Delhi, Shri Vijay Kapoor too a few months back, by setting up a special cell in his office to meet the encroachment complaints, had launched a special drive to remove unauthorised constructions.

Interesting part of the whole episode is that, despite the High Court order, the State Government is itself opposing the drive. It means the Government does not want to remove the illegal constructions. ‘‘Obiviously because the Congress leaders who are directly involved in the trade, are being exposed. That is why they are staging dharnas,’’ alleges leader of the Opposition, Prof Jagdish Mukhi. He further added that the Congress was deliberately politicising the drive to defame the BJP.

Chairman of the MCD standing committee Shri Shanti Desai while strongly criticising the Congress attitude, charged it with double standards. ‘‘When everything is being done under the instructions of the Chief Secretary of Delhi, why is it making a hue and cry against the drive,’’ he said denying that any particular area was being targetted. The MCD is just following the directions of the High Court and the Chief Secretary, he added.

The Congress legislators' party is divided over the Chief Minister's stand on the drive. It came out openly on November 11 when 32 of the total 53 Congress MLAs did not join the dharna organised by the MLAs considered close to the Chief Minister at Rajghat to protest against the drive. The lack of seriousness even among the MLAs who attended the dharna was evident from the fact that they left the venue much before time. The DPCC president Subhash Chopra also stayed away from the dharna, alleging that he was not taken into confidence before planning an agitation on such an important issue.  

Meanwhile, the Congress protest received a major setback when the Union Urban Development Minister Shri Jagmohan ordered strong action against the large scale unauthorised constructions in the residential colonies of Delhi. He is also planning to order a CBI inquiry into how hundreds of multi-storied apartment complexes have been allowed to come up illegally on plots meant for two-and-a-half-storied houses only. Shri Jagmohan recently summoned the chiefs of top local agencies, like DDA, MCD, and Delhi Government's Urban Development Department. While expressing displeasure at the fact that Delhi's landscape and skyline are being mercilessly butchered by the builder mafia, he directed them to put down such violations with a heavy hand.

The Minister also wondered how the local authorities had closed their eyes to such massive constructions which were carreid out in complete violation of density regulations and without getting the layout and service plans amended. He directed the authorities to take strong action against the responsible officials failing which he may order a CBI inquiry. The unauthorised constructions were imposing a tremendous burden on the grossly inadequate civic faciliteis which were originally meant for fewer houses.