Gurgaon: A number of natural drains flowing through the rocky terrains of the eco-fragile Aravali foothills near DLF-3 have been filled with construction and demolition (C&D) waste over the past six-seven years to build an access road to farmhouses, temples, dairy farms and labour colonies illegally constructed on the green belt of the biodiversity park, TOI has learnt.
A wall built by the MCG to protect the area has been broken and encroachments are growing by the day, thanks to an entrenched nexus between land grabbers, few “influential” locals and the area councillor. A number of borewells have also been installed in the area to exploit the groundwater, despite a ban on the same.
Residents say their repeated complaints, to the authorities — from PMO to the chief minister’s office — over the years have only fallen on deaf ears. “We first raised the issue of encroachment and the illegal road construction with the MCG in 2014. Subsequently, we wrote several letters to the civic body, but no concrete action has been taken,” said Sunny, a local resident.
In 2016, when the residents approached the PMO, the MCG claimed they had tried to block the road multiple times but had to give up due to stiff resistance from locals. The next year, residents wrote to the Haryana DGP. Subsequently, MCG carried out limited demolition in the area, but kept the illegal access road untouched. But the illegal structures returned soon.
“Dumping of C&D waste has been done since 2013 by local goons and land mafia to level the area of the Aravali Biodiversity Park,” said Reema, a resident of DLF-3. “Apart from permanent structures like the farmhouses, multiple dhobhi ghats and cattle sheds have also come up in the area in the past six-seven years. All our complaints to CM windows were also closed arbitrarily.”
According to the NGT, dumping waste anywhere in the Aravalis is a clear violation of rules. The tribunal, in 2016, had clearly said if anyone was found to be throwing waste in the Aravalis, the vehicle should be seized and a penalty of Rs 5,000 should be imposed.
It may be mentioned here that in 2019, the department of town and country planning (DTCP) conducted a survey of the area and confirmed that there was no revenue road in the area. TOI has a copy of the MCG map which shows these areas as green belts.
“Everyone given an opportunity wants to encroach upon the public land. The only way we will be able to protect areas under our control is by keeping an eye and continuously repairing fences. We have to take a call on how we want to protect these areas,” said Latika Thukral of I AM Gurgaon, an NGO taking care of the biodiversity park.
Shab Ram (popular as Neelu Sarpanch), MCG councillor, however, said around 75 acres of land are under private ownership and they have permission for installing borewells from MCG. “Chakbandi has not been done on Nathupur so there are no roads in revenue records. A road is proposed through the area,” he said. But he admitted to having dumped solid waste on his farmhouse for agriculture purposes.
MCG commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh said that dumping C&D waste even on private land is not permissible and the civic body will inspect the area and issue fines.
“Any kind of construction even on private land without our approval is illegal. Teams from MCG will inspect the area to check the illegal construction and encroachment on the government land or on the biodiversity land. Even MCG councillors or officials will face action if they are found to be involved,” he said.

Gurgaon: The wife of a city police constable allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the 7th floor of a tower in Police Lines on Monday. The homemaker and her husband, who is posted at Udyog Vihar police station, had been facing a matrimonial dispute for some time, police said.
Her family stated that she was facing some mental health issues and blamed nobody for the death. Chanchal (36) married constable Rajesh Kumar (38) in 2006. They have two children and lived on a first-floor flat in Police Lines.
Over the years, differences cropped up between the couple. They recently had a dispute over some domestic issue. Family members of both Chanchal and Rajesh had come to Gurgaon and stayed over for a few days to reconcile the couple, police said. Rajesh hasn’t reported to work for the last two days.
On Monday evening, the relatives left. Around 10pm, Chanchal went to the 7th floor of another tower and jumped from the lobby. She was found on the ground in a pool of blood. Chanchal was taken to hospital, where doctors declared her brought dead. On Tuesday, her brother Praveen Kumar gave a written statement to police saying she had mental health issues and nobody is responsible for her death. “No complaint has been filed. The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem,” said police spokesperson Subhash Boken.

KOLKATA: Kolkata Metro's system of crowd management seems to have become a model for the country. On Tuesday, senior officials from Mumbai Central held an online meeting with the developers who were appointed by the Bengal government to create the URL from where e-passes are being downloaded. The state transport department helped find this solution for managing crowd.
Sanjoy Chatterjee, whom the state government has appointed to develop the Pathadisha Metro e-pass, said: "The officials from Mumbai's Central Railway told us that crowd management is a big headache for them and they would like us to help them address the issue the same way it has been done for Kolkata Metro."
Since there's no time for Railways to invite bids, the Maharashtra government would be approached to partner with the private developers in the PPP way, said Chatterjee, who is the director of Ideation Technology.
On Monday, Bengal transport officials had received calls from Mumbai Central Line and Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC). They wanted to understand how Kolkata Metro's e-pass was working. Metro Railway general manager Manoj Joshi said, "Mumbai Central Line general manager has taken the details from us and we put them on to the state transport department. Our system has turned out to be a model for crowd management."