Slum-dwellers encroach upon over 500 acres in Faridabad

jendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, December 22

The local authorities are faced with the stiff challenge of reclamation of hundreds of acres of land worth several hundred crores, which has been occupied illegally.

The encroachments mainly in the form of unauthorised colonies and slum clusters have been set up on the land that belongs to the Municipal Corporation (MCF) and the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA).

“We are working on a plan to remove the encroachments from the HUDA land in the city in a phased manner,’’ claimed PC Meena, HUDA administrator.

Admitting that over 200 acres of HUDA’s land was under illegal occupation, he said this had resulted in problems in carrying out various projects, which include the completion of the widening work of the bypass road. He said the encroachment on the public land was a major issue, and the department had their task cut out, to recover the same.

He also announced a drive against the encroachments that have appeared in the residential, commercial (HUDA markets) and green belts. A detailed survey was being done to detect the depth of the encroachment menace in the city, he added. This problem appears to be equally serious in the areas controlled by the MCF as around 300 acres has been encroached upon over the last several years.

According to Ravi Singla, the DTP, MCF, “A majority of the 250 acres of land under encroachment was entangled in legal hurdles and the civic body was hardly left with an option to recover it. He said action was taken against illegal constructions from time to time to keep a check on such activity.”

He said, “Over 100 acres of land belonging to the Irrigation, PWD, and Rehabilitation Departments were also a victim to the menace.”

The recent announcement of the state government to provide 48,000 residential units under the Rajiv Awas Yojna for the poor was perhaps in view of the fact that around 66 unauthorised colonies and slum clusters were occupying the encroached land.

The recovery of such land was difficult in view of involvement of influential political persons, claimed KL Gera a social activist. The drive taken up on Sunday exposed the weakness of the system as it could remove only a few constructions while over 100 acres of land was under illegal occupation, he said. He added even the state-level cleanliness drive launched on November 1 was organised at an illegal colony.