MCDs yet to authenticate survey on 351 roads

The commissioners of the three BJP-ruled municipal corporations on Wednesday said they are yet to authenticate the survey on 351 roads, which are to be notified under commercial and mixed-use category.

These roads are to be notified so that business establishments on them can be saved from an ongoing sealing drive.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party have been blaming each other for not notifying these roads.

The sealing drive currently happening in areas other than these 351 roads is against businesses using residential areas for commercial purposes without paying conversion charges.

It is being carried out by a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee and implemented by the three municipal corporations.

For the roads to be notified, the civic bodies have to submit a report to the Delhi government that they have surveyed the roads and they qualify for being notified as commercial or mixed-use.

This has to be then approved by the Supreme Court.

But the survey was done by the unified municipal corporation in 2006, and now commissioners said that they have to review the old files to authenticate the old survey.

In a meeting on Wednesday with a special committee of the Delhi Assembly set up to inquire into the sealing drive, the commissioners sought more time for the purpose.

According to the Delhi government, the survey report it received from civic bodies was not authenticated and so it did not approach the Supreme Court for its nod on the proposed notification.

The commissioners said that they would collect the old survey report and review it before authenticating it.

The next meeting of the special committee, headed by ruling AAP's Bhavna Gaur, is scheduled for Monday.

--IANS

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