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Court asks DDA about steps to clean up Jama Masjid area

The Delhi high court today directed the Delhi Development Authority to state as to what steps it had taken to remove illegal constructions from in and around the historic Jama Masjid and make the place clean.

A division bench, comprising acting chief justice Devinder Gupta and Justice K S Gupta directed DDA to file a comprehensive affidavit by September 16 detailing steps taken and results achieved for removing encroachments from the parking place, Meena Bazaar and the Jama Masjid vicinity.

The court was told by the DDA that a meeting had been convened with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to discuss the matter and chalk out strategy for the implementation of the May 1, 1998 order of the court.

The court expressed its desire that the order should be implemented at the earliest in coordination with all authorities, including the Delhi government and the local police.

The court asked Municipal Corporation of Delhi counsel Madhu Tiwetia to state as to what steps the corporation had taken for removing the encroachments, she said, since the majority of the area in and around Jama Masjid was under the DDA jurisdiction, it had left the matter for the DDA to take action.

The directions came on a set of PILs filed among others by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage raising the growing unauthorised constructions and encroachment problem near the historic Mughal monument.

The PILs sought immediate stoppage of all illegal constructions in and around the Jama Masjid as it was destroying the historical value and the original structure of the monument. Besides, it was turning the area dirty.

UNI

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