The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has said the demolition drive in the city’s Mehrauli area is a “court-mandated exercise” to “secure the Mehrauli Archaeological Park from encroachment.”
Protest erupted in the area after the DDA launched the demolition drive in the Mehrauli Archaeological Park area on Friday. DDA has partially demolished a few houses, some of which were under construction, along with some shanties in the same area. They also demolished a 4-story building.
The exercise continued on Sunday eve after the Arvind Kejriwal government on asked the DDA to stop its anti-encroachment drive in Mehrauli and announced a fresh demarcation exercise in the area.
However, DDA officials said the demolition drive will continue. The demolition drive will be carried out till March 9, according to officials.
DDA’s Statement
In a statement on Saturday, DDA said that the drive to clear unauthorized encroachments on Government land, that houses protected Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) monuments among others, has been started in co-ordination with Delhi Police at Lado Sarai Village falling in Mehrauli Archaeological Park on
“All stakeholders, including the GNCTD, have been on board in the run-up to this long pending, Court-mandated exercise,” the statement said.
It noted that a demarcation exercise, to identify the extent of unauthorized and illegal encroachment or construction, for the purpose of removing them, had been carried out as per the direction of the High Court by the Revenue Department, representatives, in the presence of DDA and Waqf Board representatives in December 2021.
“This park, adjacent to the iconic Qutub Minar is home to about 55 monuments under the protection of ASI, State Archaeological Department of GNCTD and DDA,’ the statement noted added a demolition order dated December 12, 2022, was pasted on the encroachments existing on the land along with marking with the directions to the encroachers to remove all the unauthorised construction from the land in question within 10 days.
“The land involved in the said demolition order is Government/DDA Land of Ladha Sarai Village and is part of Mehrauli Archaeological Park, the statement said adding that Delhi High Court, on many occasions, directed the government authorities to secure, and protect and preserve the area falling under Mehrauli Archaeological Park by removing illegal encroachment.
Delhi Govt’s order
Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot on Saturday ordered a fresh demarcation exercise in Mehrauli. In a statement, Gahlot said the DDA used the revenue department’s demarcation as the basis for its demolition drive but the Delhi government has struck down the demarcation after finding shortcomings in it.
The residents of the area cannot be displaced until a fresh demarcation is conducted, he noted.
“The demarcation was conducted by keeping the residents in dark and without serving any notices to them,” the minister claimed.
The district magistrate (South) has been asked to conduct a fresh demarcation of the land and inform the DDA about it immediately, he added.
Gahlot had received representations from the residents of Ladha Sarai village whose land falls under the demolition area, the statement said.
It was stated in the said representations that the demarcation of the land in question by the Delhi government’s revenue department was the only source for the DDA to identify the encroachment, it said.
According to the representations, the demarcation carried out by the revenue department was “illegal and void ab-initio” and conducted without issuing notices to the concerned residents.
“In a meeting on Friday, revenue officials admitted that before the demarcation of the Khasra numbers in question, no notice was served to the occupants of those Khasra numbers and obviously there was no participation from them at the time of the demarcation exercise,” Gahlot said.
He ordered that the concerned residents be asked to remain present during the fresh demarcation exercise to ensure fairness and transparency of the process.
Mehrauli Demolition
Nearly 1,200 sqm of government land was reclaimed during the anti-encroachment drive in the Mehrauli Archaeological Park area a day ago, DDA officials said.
The DDA action comes a month ahead of a G20 meeting planned to be hosted at the archaeological park in south Delhi.
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