Wednesday, 09 March 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
Accusing senior officials of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) of being apathetic towards the issue of land encroachment by land mafia, several councillors have decided to stage a protest if the officials fail to take cognisance in the matter. Councillor Bhupendra Kathait informed that he along with other councillors had given a memorandum to the municipal commissioner Abhishek Ruhela on March 3 and made him aware of the several encroachments on the corporation’s land. He said, “We also apprised him of the alleged assistance being provided by some municipal officials to land mafias to acquire the pieces of land that belong to the corporation. However, no action has been taken by the corporation so far.” He said that property tax is allegedly being deposited for MCD’s lands with officials’ assistance to make it easy for land mafias to go to court to claim their ownership in future. There are several such cases across the city where many are trying to encroach the MCD’s land using different ways but despite the consistent complaints, senior officials concerned remained apathetic towards the issue. “We went to the MCD premises on Tuesday to meet the commissioner and other officials concerned but we found nobody there. We tried calling them but nobody picked up our calls. We interacted with some officials but their response on the matter was unsatisfactory. Nothing is being done by them in such a serious issue,” said Kathait. He said that if the officials will not take any action in the matter this week, they will stage a protest outside the commissioner’s office at the weekend and demand the investigation by Special Investigation Team (SIT).
