New Delhi: The municipal corporations in the city on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that unauthorised construction cannot be curbed or prevented by conducting inspections but "economic deterrents" should be put in place for this.
The submission was made before a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul which was also informed that at present there are 1.5-2 lakh unauthorised constructions in the national capital, with the situation attaining "rampant" proportions in East Delhi.
The submissions were made by the respective Commissioners of the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi - East, South and North - who also said "we are serious about removing the menace of unauthorised constructions".
In view of the views of the MCD Commissioners, who were present in pursuance to the court's earlier order, the bench asked them to "have another meeting and come out with an action plan" as well as "specific suggestions" of what is required of other authorities concerned, including the Ministry of Urban Development and Delhi government, to curb unauthorised constructions.
The court also roped in Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to help solve the issue and listed the bunch of petitions pertaining to unauthorised construction for further hearing on October 15.
"Meanwhile, in all these matters concerned respondents shall file status report with respect to the alleged unauthorised construction and action taken in accordance with law for removing them," the bench said.
It also told the authorities to stop "passing the buck" on whose responsibility it is to take action against the unauthorised constructions.
During the hearing, the ineffectiveness of "inspector raj" was raised before the court by South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) Commissioner Manish Gupta who said the prevalent method of deploying engineers and police personnel, in whatever numbers, to check unauthorised construction "will not work".
