Residents gather near a bulldozer as they try to stop a demolition drive by the MCD in Bhalswa area of New Delhi on August 13.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Tuesday deferred a demolition drive in Bhalswa Dairy submitting in the High Court that it will not launch the exercise till August 16, when the next hearing the matter is due.
A team of civic body reached northwest Delhi's Bhalswa Dairy colony with bulldozers and heavy deployment of police personnel on Tuesday, prompting locals to stage protest against authorities.
"The demolition drive was stopped as a large crowd of protesters assembled at the site raising slogans against the MCD. Since the MCD informed the Delhi High Court that today it will not demolish drive till August 16, we have postponed it till further order," a senior MCD official said.
The counsel representing residents of the dairy colony approached the court later on Tuesday apprising it that MCD bulldozers with heavy police force had reached the area for demolition.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said it will take up the matter on August 16, when it will also hear a petition regarding the state of dairies in the city.
The MCD informed the Delhi High Court that it would put the demolition drive on hold in the Bhalswa Dairy colony till August 16.
Meanwhile, Rajesh Kumar, deputy commissioner, MCD Civil Lines Zone, said the demolition drive was stalled due to less police force deployment at the site. The civic body has demanded more force to carry out the demolition in the coming days.
"A large crowd of protestors had gathered at the dairy making it difficult to carry out the drive. We have asked for 500-600 police personnel to conduct the demolition later," Kumar told PTI.
The MCD has identified 800 illegal structures in the Bhalswa Dairy colony area that have misused land allotted for dairy farming for residential and commercial purposes.
In a public notice last week, the civic body gave a three-day ultimatum to defaulters to vacate the encroached premises. It had said that enforcement action will be taken against all illegal and unauthorised constructions after the expiry of the deadline and a demolition drive will be carried out.
In July, the court had directed the authorities to ensure that unauthorised construction in all dairy colonies in the national capital is removed and asked them to take immediate steps for shifting dairies from Bhalswa to Ghogha dairy colony within four weeks.
The court directed the agency to carry out a survey of the Bhalswa Dairy colony to identify misuse of dairy plots that have been converted into dwelling units and shops and are being misused for industrial purposes.
The court was earlier informed by the court commissioner that the condition of all nine designated dairy colonies in Delhi -- Kakrola Dairy, Goela Dairy, Nangli Shakrawati Dairy, Jharoda Dairy, Bhalswa Dairy, Ghazipur Dairy, Shahbad Daulatpur Dairy, Madanpur Khadar Dairy, and Masoodpur Dairy -- was "bad".
Perusing the photographs of the dairies, the court had noted that there were large-scale constructions and urbanisation in some of the dairy colonies, including salons, showrooms, gymnasiums, and internet cafes.
It had said the character of the colonies had ceased to be that of dairy colonies as commercial showrooms were operating there and superstructures as high as four storeyed had come up for residential and commercial purposes.