Mehrauli demolition: AAP asks DDA to stop drive, orders fresh demarcation exercise

BJP says ‘wrong’ report has resulted in loss of homes for several families; DDA says 1,200 sq m of its land reclaimed, exercise to continue

February 12, 2023 01:32 am | Updated 01:32 am IST

Workers demolish a building on the second day of an anti-encroachment drive by the DDA at Mehrauli on Saturday.

Workers demolish a building on the second day of an anti-encroachment drive by the DDA at Mehrauli on Saturday. | Photo Credit: PTI

A day after the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) conducted a demolition drive in Mehrauli, the AAP government on Saturday said the demarcation of the particular area — an exercise carried out by its own Revenue Department — has “fallacies” and the survey report has now been struck down. 

The government also ordered a fresh demarcation exercise in the area and issued a statement urging the DDA to stop the demolition drive, which continued for a second day on Saturday. 

The AAP government’s latest move has invited criticism from the BJP, which launched a fresh attack on the former. “People of Delhi are shocked to see the callousness of the Arvind Kejriwal government of giving the DDA a wrong survey report because of which dozens of families have lost their homes and more are under the hammer,” said Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor. 

The chairman of the DDA is central government-appointed Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena with whom the AAP government is already locked in a power tussle.  

Earlier in the day, the DDA said close to 1,200 square metres of its land was reclaimed from “encroachers” on Friday and that the exercise will continue. 

The urban body said the “encroached” land – in the Ladha Sarai Village – is part of the Mehrauli Archaeological Park, and that the latter is home to nearly 55 monuments under the protection of Archaeological Survey of India, Delhi government’s Department of Archaeology, and the DDA.

“The Delhi High Court has, on many occasions, directed the government authorities to secure, protect and preserve the area falling under the Mehrauli Archaeological Park by removing illegal encroachments. The department is taking the action to remove the unauthorised, illegal encroachment from government land and also to secure the Mehrauli Archaeological Park from encroachment,” the DDA said in an official statement.

According to the DDA, the Delhi government was also on board in the run-up to “the long-pending, court-mandated exercise”. A demarcation exercise -- to identify the extent of illegal encroachments for the purpose of removing them -- was carried out by the Revenue Department representatives in the presence of the DDA and Waqf Board representatives, the statement read.

Fresh demarcation 

Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot said officials of his department, in a meeting on Friday, admitted that occupants were not served any notice before the demarcation of the Khasra numbers [land parcel identification numbers given in village areas] in question. “Obviously, there was no participation by the occupants at the time of conducting the demarcation,” he said. 

Thus, he added, it was apparent that the demarcation had been conducted by keeping the occupants in the dark and no hearing of any nature whatsoever was given to the aggrieved persons. 

“The District Magistrate (South) has been asked to immediately inform the DDA authorities about this order and that a fresh demarcation exercise shall again be carried out,” Mr. Gahlot said. 

When asked about it, a senior DDA official said the urban body has not received any formal communication from the Delhi government, in connection to the demarcation report being struck down. “Until we get any communication, the encroachment removal exercises will continue as planned,” the official added.

Urging the DDA to stop the demolition drive until a proper demarcation is done, the BJP said the AAP leaders are “masters in the art of misleading” people. 

“Mehrauli area has been witnessing a demolition drive based on Delhi Government’s Revenue Department records and surprisingly today when dozens of houses have been demolished, we find Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot coming out to say that there are ‘fallacies’ in the old survey conducted by his department and we are ordering new survey,” he said. 

On Friday, AAP had hit out at the BJP over the demolition by the DDA, alleging that before the MCD election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised people of Delhi that they would provide “Jahan Jhuggi, Wahi Makaan”, but the BJP was now demolishing houses in Mehrauli. The party had also assured that they would oppose the drive and not let even one slum to be demolished. 

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