Delhi Newsline: New Delhi:Friday, May 18, 2012.
Censured over inaction against illegal occupation of more than 300 government quarters in Gulabi Bagh by former employees, the Delhi government has assured the Delhi High Court that they will get these houses vacated within six months.
On Wednesday, the government told a bench headed by Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri that they have started taking action against such occupants and would be get back possession of all such houses within six months.
Taking their assurance on record, the bench disposed of the PIL filed by one Dinesh Sharma and gave him the liberty to revive his petition if the government failed to do so in the fixed time frame. Armed with an RTI reply disclosing that more than 300 government quarters of Type I to Type IV in North Delhi’s Gulabi Bagh were illegally occupied by former employees, Sharma, an upper division clerk with the government, had moved court seeking their immediate eviction.
Sharma’s petition, through advocate Asish Nischal, stated that more than 270 government quarters are being illegally occupied by former employees. Many of them have retired some even died but their families continue to live there. Gulabi Bagh has 2,100 government quarters.
As per the RTI reply received from the Public Works Department (PWD), besides the illegal occupation of around 13 per cent of the total number of houses, 40 have been sublet by allottees and 13 persons have been allotted two quarters each without any ordinate reason. The court described this as a “very serious violation” and sought an explanation from PWD. Admitting the petition, the court sought a response from the government and fixed the matter for hearing in Julyency
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