NEW DELHI: South Delhi Municipal Corporation conducted two raids in south Delhi’s posh Sainik Farms in November and identified 45 properties with ongoing illegal construction. With the area being declared a zero tolerance zone by the high court, these properties should’ve faced demolition but officials took action only on some of them.

The matter has now been forwarded to the vigilance department as allowing construction in this zone may result in suspension of the engineers.

“No major demolition has been carried out in the area despite a high court order which states that even building material shouldn’t be allowed inside Sainik Farms. The corporation officials are obviously involved in letting these structures come up. The bribes are so high in the area that one ends up paying more money than the rate at which the land was bought,” said Farhad Suri, leader of the opposition, South Corporation.

The first raid was conducted on November 13 where 25 properties were identified. Another raid took place on November 25 and 20 properties were identified. However, the officials say that the matter has been referred to the vigilance department as officials responsible aren’t working on the same post. “After trifurcation of MCD, shuffling of officials keeps taking place. We don’t know when exactly the construction started. We can’t punish officials who took action and this will demoralize them,” said a senior South Corporation official.

Suri explained that technology to determine the date of the construction is available today. “The truth is no one wants to stop construction in this area as some officials take very large bribes. Moreover, in a case like this, officials should face suspension and there is no need to refer the matter to vigilance. There are pictures of ongoing construction which is concrete evidence,” said Suri.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Vigilance-to-probe-Sainik-Farms-inaction/articleshow/27257764.cms