Delhi govt asks DDA to stop demolition drive in Mehrauli, announces fresh demarcation exercise

The Arvind Kejriwal government on Saturday asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to stop its anti-encroachment drive in Mehrauli and announced a fresh demarcation exercise in the area, officials said.

The DDA used the revenue department's demarcation as the basis for demolition of alleged encroachments, they claimed.

Revenue Minister Kailash Gahlot has ordered a fresh demarcation exercise in Mehrauli. The minister said the residents of the area cannot be displaced until a fresh demarcation is conducted, the officials said.

DDA officials, however, said the demolition drive will continue.

The DDA launched the demolition drive in the Mehrauli Archaeological Park area on Friday, triggering protests from locals.

The demolition drive will be carried out till March 9, according to officials.

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 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.

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 exercise will continue, they said.

The DDA action comes a month ahead of a G20 meeting planned to be hosted at the archaeological park in south Delhi.