Keeping in view the illegal commercial establishments becoming rampant in Indirapuram, the Allahabad High Court (HC) on Thursday ordered Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) and District Magistrate (DM) to file a status report regarding the steps taken to shut them.
The high court gave the order on hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Federation of Apartment Owners Association (FedAOA), Indirapuram.
Alok Kumar, the petitioner and president of FedAOA said that GDA has not been able to contain the commercialization and full flow operations of unauthorized shops in the area.
“Look at all the roads in Indirapuram! We see commercial activities at every nook and corner of the city, which, in fact, was developed only for residential purpose,” Kumar said.
Besides, FedAOA in the PIL alleged GDA for being involved and shielding unauthorized commercial establishments which has led to chaos in the area by causing traffic jams, road encroachments, illegal parking, air and noise pollution and street crimes.
“All these have degraded the quality of life of the residents,” he added.
The PIL also mentions the allegations of underreporting of the number of notices served to residential property owners by GDA for using their property for unauthorized commercial establishments.
“In reply to an RTI application I filed, GDA revealed in May 2018 that 1494 residential property owners have been served notice while in reality, the figure is over 5000,” Kumar alleged.
Kumar said that authority took almost two years to reveal the data and even after that, the numbers shown are not credible enough.
Meanwhile, the high court has given three weeks’ time to the authority and district administration to the file status report and counter affidavit before it by November 14, the date of next hearing.
Taking note of it, GDA Vice Chairperson, Kanchan Verma, said the authority will file a counter affidavit soon.
“Survey of such activities happens time to time and we also serve notices to the violators,” she added.
VC also informed that GDA had served notices to over 8500 violators across its eight zones in the last survey conducted.
