GURUGRAM: The department of town and country planning (DTCP) has
demolished an unauthorised colony of 150 shanties at
Saraswati Kunj in Sector-53. The demolition drive came after local
residents complained that the
slum dwellers were living in unhygienic conditions and defecating in the open. Also, there were multiple safety concerns, officials said.
The unauthorised colony had come up behind Parsavnath Exotica housing society on Golf Course Road. DTCP had received complaints about open defecation in the area which could lead to an outbreak of disease. Also, the slum dwellers were using
illegal LPG cylinders and power connections that posed a threat of fire hazard in the area. Similar complaints were also made on CM Window and to Municipal Corporation of Gurugram in the past eight months.
DTCP officials carried out the drive on Friday. During the drive, officials faced resistance from the slum dwellers who insisted that they did not have anywhere else to go. However, heavy police deployment assured that nothing untoward happened. After the four hour-long drive, the officials razed down 150 shanties, boundary walls of 11 plots, 13 storerooms where dwellers had been keeping their stuff, three industrial sheds which stored gypsum board and one grocery store.
“There were multiple concerns here. The colony residents had encroached upon the land and they were posing health and safety hazards to the nearby residential societies and passersby. We demolished most of the structures they had built and will conduct another drive very soon to clear the remaining area. No colony can be built without permission from the competent authority,” said Amit Madholia, assistant town planner (enforcement), DTCP.
