Over 100 structures razed in Sultanpur drive, FIR to be filed

Gurgaon: Continuing with its anti-encroachment drive, the department of town and country planning (DTCP) razed over 100 illegal structures in Sultanpur on Friday. This was the third major drive in the district this month after Saraswati Kunj and Farukhnagar.
A DTCP team carried out the demolition drive in the presence of cops and cleared seven acres of prime land using four earthmovers. Offices of three property dealers were also razed and an FIR will be lodged against the offenders in 15 days, officials said.
District town planner RS Batth said, “The presence of these offices clearly indicates that property dealers had been duping poor families. We will file FIRs against these dealers within 15 days and they have been directed to share the details of total plots sold along with financial details.”
“Demolition drives will continue in the entire district to raze fresh and under-construction illegal colonies carved out in the past few months,” he added.
Earlier this month, the DTCP’s enforcement team razed over 12,000 shanties in Saraswati Kunj along Golf Course Road. Nearly 15,000 shanties had come up in the area despite a ban on construction due to ongoing court cases over allotment of plots to multiple people.
Set up in 1983, Saraswati Kunj has been under a legal tussle since 2004, when only 4,000 houses could be accommodated in the colony after the cooperative group allegedly allotted plots to 9,000 applicants in exchange for money. On the ground, it has allotted only 1,500 plots so far.
In 2016, the state government formed a commission headed by retired IAS officer SP Sharma to identify the original owners of the plots and suggest a way out of the stalemate.
The matter is, at present, with the Punjab and Haryana high court.