Encroachment of public land by unauthorized vendors has been taking place in Vasant Vihar for over many years. Efforts made to get them removed by the Vasant Vihar Welfare Association (VVWA) and the Block Associations were unsuccessful. Finally, VVWA filed a petition in the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi for their evacuation. The Hon’ble High Court constituted a three-member committee comprising of the Assistant Commissioner of MCD with two more members, one from Police to be nominated by SHO, while the other member shall be either the President or Secretary, VVWA.
Several times, drives were planned by the constituted committee to evacuate the unauthorized vendors, but the drives could not be materialized due to unavailability of adequate manpower and resources with the MCD or the Police.
With the consistent and persistent efforts of VVWA, the MCD got into action, in accordance with the orders of the Hon’ble High Court, on 23 August 2023 and carried out the first anti encroachment drive in C and E markets of the colony and removed their furniture and other operational items in five truck loads.
Now that the process has started, VVWA should keep the pressure on MCD for undertaking many more such drives till all the unauthorized encroachments are removed.
According to Gurpreet Singh Bindra, President VVWA, many more such anti encroachment drives have already been scheduled and shall be undertaken as and when staff and resources are available with MCD and the law enforcing agency.
