North MCD justifies action without notice: 'Have power to do so'
new delhi: On Wednesday, as the North MCD continued demolishing "illegal structures" in violence-hit Jahangirpuri despite orders from the Supreme Court to stop it, the BJP-run civic body later in the day justified its action against "encroachers" further doubling down and saying it has full power to raze illegal structures without notice under the DMC Act.
And even as the North MCD tried its best to publicly say that the bulldozer action was for illegal encroachment, Standing Committee Chairman Jogi Ram Jain let it slip that a "part of it was due to the April 16 incident (the day of communal clashes)", as well.
"Encroachment drives are a regular occurrence, we didn't do this because of the April 16 incident but because it's our responsibility. Jahangirpuri has been on our radar since January and we have had previous drives there as well. The April 16 incident was only partly the cause of today's demolition," Jain told Millennium Post.
But in a statement released on Wednesday evening, the North MCD went back to saying that last week's violence had nothing to do with the drive and insisted that they had been conducting similar drives since the beginning of the year. Anti-encroachment drives were previously conducted in Jahangirpuri in February and April, officials said.
The civic body said they cleared approximately 2 kms of road near Kushal Cinema from encroachment and approximately 25 structures were seized and 20 tonnes of garbage was lifted from the area with the help of 7 bulldozers. During the encroachment removal drive 8 trucks and 4 mini tata ace were deployed along with a manpower of 70-80officials of North MCD. They said, "The above action is an attempt to clear pedestrian walkways and roads from encroachments to ease the traffic and pedestrian movement."
However, in their insistence to show that this was a regular anti-encroachment drive, the North MCD refused to explain how or when they decided that the structures demolished on Wednesday were illegal. Moreover, neither did the civic body care to explain whether the occupants were given a chance to show that their paperwork was in order. Despite this, officials in the civic body claimed they had done their "due diligence".
In fact, the civic body claimed that Sections 321, 322, 323, and 325 of the DMC Act, 1957 gave them the power to demolish structures without notice.
The civic body has stated if they get permission from the SC, they plan to continue the drive in Jahangirpuri today (Thursday) as well. They also plan to send lawyers to represent themselves on the matter in front of the SC.
