In a fresh twist to the row over a 108-ft-tall Hanuman statue allegedly built on encroached land here, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation today resiled from its stand that the land belonged to it and instead told the Delhi High Court that area is under New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). The development comes after the Corporation was asked by the court to give a list of its officials who were posted in the area when the statue was being constructed illegally on public land, including a pavement, in the busy Karol Bagh area here, and into which the high court has ordered a CBI probe. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said it was not accepting the submission by the North Delhi municipal corporation (North MCD), but was making the Council a party as its presence was essential to the proceedings. The Corporation's stand came as a surprise as during several hearing in the matter in the past it had responded to the queries of the court on the issue and had not denied jurisdiction over the area. The court asked the NDMC to place before it the records pertaining to ownership of the land in question, grant of power and water connection, date of sanction of these amenities and building plan and action taken, if any, by the Council against the construction. The civic body was also ordered to give within a week a list of its officials posted in the area and to fully assist the probe by the CBI which was asked to carry out a fair and expeditious investigation. The head of the trust running the temple at the site has been directed to place on record the documents indicating ownership of the land as well as sanction for its possession, occupation and the constructions there. The court said an illegal construction cannot be treated as an icon of Delhi after the lawyer for the temple trust head, Om Prakash Giri, said that the statue was an iconic structure. The bench did not agree with the contention of Giri's lawyer that the land in question was originally occupied since 1821 by Naga sadhus, some of whom were also buried there. The court said if anyone says that the statue was that old, it would order a chemical analysis of the structure. It also made it clear that the proceedings before it and the CBI probe were restricted to the alleegd issue of encroachment on the public land, especially the pavement, by the temple and the statue. The court had initially ordered a police probe into the encroachment after a committee appointed by it in May last year to look into illegal constructions all over Delhi had pointed to encroachments of up to 1,170 square yards on DDA land which forms part of the Southern Ridge. The committee had also said that apart from the Hanuman statue, there was unauthorised construction of multiple small and big buildings of up to four floors including a residential complex there. The bench had then directed the authorities to take action against the unauthorised constructions on public land and ensure that all encroachments on the Southern Ridge are removed immediately and the Ridge is secured in terms of the orders of the Supreme Court.
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