Delhi: De-Sealing Of Properties In Residential Areas To Be Completed By Diwali, Say BJP-Ruled Municipal Corporations

De-sealing of more than 3,000 properties in residential areas will be completed by the three Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled municipal corporations in Delhi by Diwali.

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta and North Delhi Mayor Jai Prakash launched a de-sealing exercise in Todapur area which falls under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). They provided certificates to the property owners concerned.

Gupta said: "The three BJP-ruled municipal corporations have started the process for over 3,000 properties that were wrongly sealed by the monitoring committee. The de-sealing process will be completed by Diwali."

He added that 1,357 properties under the NDMC, 700 under the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and “around 1,000 under the East Delhi Municipal Corporation will be de-sealed under the ambit of a Supreme Court ruling providing relief from the sealing drive undertaken by the monitoring committee in recent years”.

Recently, the Supreme Court ordered de-sealing of residential premises sealed by the monitoring committee appointed by it. It stated that the committee "had no power to look into the matter and take action".

This report says that the apex court had said that the court-appointed monitoring committee, "which was formed in 2006 to check the illegal use of properties had the mandate to act only against commercial properties and not residential ones..."

In August, the corporation functionaries and state BJP had announced that more properties that had been sealed will be de-sealed. The process got delayed.

In South Delhi, more than 600 properties in residential areas including Greater Kailash, Lajpat Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Defence Colony and Janakpuri, will be de-sealed by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Narender Chawla, leader of the house in South MCD, said "a list of properties is being compiled and all of them would be de-sealed through one uniform order, instead of individual orders."

East Delhi Mayor Nirmal Jain informed that the East Delhi Municipal Corporation took legal opinion before starting the short listing and de-sealing process for properties covered by the Supreme Court ruling.