Delhi chief secretary orders crackdown on encroachers

In a bid to make the national capital free from encroachment, Chief Secretary K.K. Sharma on Friday instructed the principal secretary of urban development and other authorities to initiate a crackdown on people who have encroached public land, said an official statement.

Convening a high-level meeting at the Delhi secretariat, the chief secretary clearly instructed the officers concerned to deal encroachers with a tough hand.

"Encroachment on public land is a criminal act and the encroachers should be penalised accordingly. All departments concerned should put in coordinated efforts to remove the encroachments form public land," he said.

Sharma made it clear that land-owning authority must take care of its land/property and if any encroachment is reported on such land then authority would be held responsible for encroachment.

District task forces (DTF) and sub-divisional level special task forces (STFs) should be activated to remove the encroachments, he said.

"Strategies to check encroachments from the public land by keeping special vigil should be evolved. This can be done by hiring drones if the sufficient staff is not available," he added.

Sharma asked officials to check and remove encroachments from roads and streets as it caused trouble for pedestrians.

The chief secretary advised the officers to initiate cases against colonisers for buildin, unauthorized buildings on government land, agriculture land, forest land, MCD land, Gramsabha land and other public land as it is a criminal offence.