Jagmohan opens new front

By P.K. Bhardwaj

NEW DELHI, MAY 20. After having taken on the Capital's land and building mafia and launching a drive against Delhi Development Authority flat owners for carrying out illegal additions and alterations, the Union Urban Development Minister, Mr. Jagmohan, is now opening a new front. This time he has set his eyes on petrol pump dealers who have made massive encroachments on public land.

A beginning in this direction has already been made. In what he saw as a test case, Mr. Jagmohan the other day ordered action against a dealer in East Delhi who has allegedly grabbed public land by spreading his dealership network over PWD land. The land under the occupation of the dealer is said to be several times more than the plot originally allotted to him for running his retail dealership network.

Mr. Jagmohan has minced no words in his instructions to officials, asking them to not only initiate action to clear the encroachment but also realise rent at market rate for continuous use of the public land. For the past use, he further instructed the officials to proceed against the culprit to recover damages at market rates.

The dealer runs a chain of petrol pumps across the Capital. He is known to be very influential with connections both in the ruling BJP and the Congress Party. He is said to be very close to a Delhi BJP politician who held a key position in the Delhi Government during the party rule which ended after the November 1998 Assembly elections.

Interestingly, the new site where the dealer has made massive encroachments and is currently running his show on a national highway was allotted to him in lieu of the place where the petrol pump existed earlier. The original piece of land which was neither vacated nor surrendered is still under his occupation.

Not only this, he had managed scuttle an earlier move to remove the encroachments made by him. It was under pressure from influential quarters that the landowning agency then had to drop its plan to force him to confine himself to the land allotted to the dealer for operating his retail set up.

Mr. Jagmohan said that no leniency would be shown to those who breach the law and cause inconvenience to the law-abiding citizens. His drive is aimed at establishing rule of civil law in matters governed by his Ministry and discipline people to respect the law and abide by it. The idea is to not cause any harassment but to restore order and improve civic life, he added.

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