The Gurugram municipal corporation (MCG) was found to have encroached upon 13 acres of HSVP land worth hundreds of crores at five different places in the city.
The encroachment came to light when HSVP, which is reeling from a financial crisis and has been monetising its assets to raise funds, listed some of its land for auction. Officials found that a number of small plots that are on HSVP’s records have been used by MCG to construct a park, a temple, community centre and other such structures. HSVP has so far stopped the construction of the community centre in Sector 21.
HSVP officials said they had taken up with the MCG the other encroachments as well. Elaborating on them, the officials said that around 10 acres of its land in Sector 9 had been used by MCG to construct a park. In Sector 10, the civic body was found to have encroached on half an acre near NK Factory to construct a few structures.
Near the Civil Hospital in Sector 10, a temple had been built on 1.3 acres. In Sector 21, the civic body was found to be constructing a community centre on 300 square yards of HSVP land. Another 2,000 square yards of HSVP land near the Huda market in Sector 23 was found encroached by MCG to construct a park.
“For now, we have stopped the work at the community centre,” an HSVP official said.
In October, agriculture and farmer welfare minister JP Dalal had during a grievance committee meeting warned officials of strict action if they failed to act against encroachment on government land. The minister had said that the officials of the department whose land was encroached would also face action.
“We have been removing encroachments at various places and clearing our land for auction. But in this case, the encroacher is another government body,” said a senior HSVP official.
This is the second time this year that MCG has been accused of encroaching on HSVP land. In February, it had come to light that MCG had constructed a road on HSVP land in Sector 49. The land on which the road had been constructed was allotted by HSVP to people who had given up their land for construction of the Southern Peripheral Road (SPR).
HSVP had allotted the plots in 2016. The MCG later constructed the road on the plots to connect Ghasola village with Rosewood City. A total of 8 plots worth around Rs 24 crore were affected.
Despite repeated attempts, the municipal commissioner could not be reached for a comment.
