Almost all encroachments spread over 197 acres of government land in Asola village in south Delhi were removed on Wednesday on orders of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, the Delhi government’s Revenue Department said. The remaining encroachments will be removed on Thursday, Revenue Department officials said.
Acting on instructions of the Monitoring Committee, a team of the Delhi Police, the Forest Department, power discom BSES and the Revenue Department (South district) carried out the drive with 20 earthmovers and 100 Civil Defence volunteers, the Revenue Department said.
Apart from clearing the land of encroachments, the team will secure the sites with fencing and then create permanent boundary walls, before handing over the sites to the respective government departments and gram sabhas.
Officials said the Monitoring Committee had visited Asola village on February 19 and issued orders to remove encroachments on government land. On directions of the National Green Tribunal, the forest land was demarcated and detailed maps, with encroachments on forest, gram sabha and other department land, marked separately. The maps were verified by the Revenue Department according to revenue records, officials added.
Those who had encroached on land of 42 khasra numbers had been given notices on orders of the Monitoring Committee but they did not remove the encroachments, the Revenue Department officials said. Some of the khasra numbers involved are part of an ongoing investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Of 197 acres, encroachments account for 94 acres of 445 bigha. A total of 226 bigha of forest land spread over 676 bighas, 111 bigha of gram sabha land spread over 126 bigha and 108 bigha of 133 bigha of other departments’ land were encroached, according to the Revenue Department. The land encroached upon is worth about ₹3,000 crores, according to the Revenue Department
