This story is from December 27, 2017

South corporation seals 2 marble shops, farmhouse in Chhatarpur

South corporation seals 2 marble shops, farmhouse in Chhatarpur
NEW DELHI: South Delhi Municipal Corporation on Tuesday sealed two marble shops and a farmhouse in Chhatarpur for misuse of land as directed by the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee. Last week, the civic body had sealed six marble shops in the area.
The monitoring committee had ordered for sealing the entire marble market, which comprises 88 shops, but the civic body postponed the plan by a day due to stiff resistance from the owners and workers.
Vishwender Kumar, deputy commissioner of south zone, said, “We have requested for additional police force as we cannot put the lives of our officials in danger. The drive will continue on Wednesday.”
The shop owners, however, claimed that they were not given any notice and the sealing was carried out on verbal orders. Kapil Duggal, the owner of the farmhouse, said, “We have been renewing our licence for the past several years, but no intimation was given by the corporation regarding misuse of land. The civic officials arrived suddenly and sealed the premises. They should have given prior notice before carrying out sealing.”
Mehmood Khan, the owner of a marble shop, pointed out that there are thousands of workers from different states and the civic body is taking away their livelihood without following due procedure. “The market has around 88 shops and thousands of workers are dependent on them. We are not going to back out until the civic body gives us a proper notice for sealing,” he said. “The civic officials claimed that they had given us notice beforehand, but we haven’t received any after 2006,” Khan added.
Senior civic officials, however, said that the marble shops and a few farmhouses are misusing agricultural land. “The land was for agricultural purposes and a part of it was given to people to run farmhouses and shops. However, rampant illegal construction and encroachment have come up in the past several years. We sealed the premises over misuse of land acting on the order of the monitoring committee,” said a senior south corporation official.
Meanwhile, East Delhi Municipal Corporation sealed 28 shops in Shakarpur, Mayur Vihar-III, Vishwas Nagar, Krishna Nagar and Gandhi Nagar for non-payment of conversion charges.
“We sealed 28 shops in five areas on the order of the monitoring committee. The shop owners didn’t pay conversion charges despite sending several notices. The sealing drive will further intensify,” said a senior east corporation official.
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