Farmhouse owners get notices for illegal construction on Aravalli land

The Sohna Municipal Council has sent notices to 40 farmhouse owners for allegedly building illegal properties on Aravalli forest land, said officials on Friday.

Sandeep Malik, executive officer, Sohna Municipal Council, said the notices were sent as part of compliance of a high court order issued in June 2020.

“We had sent notices to over 400 farmhouses in Raisina, which were constructed in illegally, in June 2020, after which the owners approached the high court. The court had asked us to send notices before taking any action, but many people did not turn up. We will be sending notices to 150 such owners once again to know their stance. As of now 40 farm owners have already been issued notices,” said Malik.

The property owners have been given seven days to respond to the notices, which will be assessed by a five-member committee.

In October 2018, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ruled in the case of Soniya Ghosh v/s State of Haryana, “Any construction raised on the forest area or the area covered by the notification dated 07.05.1992, without a permission of the competent authority (after the date of the said notification) has to be treated as illegal and the forest land has to be restored (sic).”

After the judgment on June 6, 2020, the Sohna Municipal Corporation served show-cause notices to over 400 farmhouses in Aravalli Retreat, on the grounds that the farmhouses were constructed in violation to the notification issued by ministry of environment, forest and climate change.

Following the instructions laid down by the NGT, the deputy commissioner ordered on June 11, 2020, that the land use category of ‘gair mumkin farmhouse’ be struck from revenue records and replaced with the ‘gair mumkin pahad’ — the original nomenclature. This move would have set the precedent for demolition of the properties. The local residents, who had opposed the move, then moved to the high court.

Since Tuesday, the council has sent notices to 40 farmhouse owners and after learning their response, the next course of action will be decided by officials, Malik added.