Ahead of G20 Summit, over 260 sites in Delhi identified as encroachments and being considered for removal

The Public Works Department (PWD) submitted that it had identified 267 sites as encroachments on government land in East and South Delhi.

Of these, 139 are located in the east and the way forward regarding them has been referred to the Delhi government’s Religious Committee under the Home Department. The remaining 128, in the south, will be removed by the MCD with PWD’s support.

The Religious Committee was formed in 2014 in pursuance of a Supreme Court judgment to consider and recommend the removal of unauthorised religious structures upon receipt of a request by the land-owning agency concerned. The Committee is headed by the home secretary of the Delhi government and comprises senior representatives from the Delhi Police and the land-owning agencies in Delhi.

It has recommended the removal of 51 unauthorised religious structures for the construction of residential flats for government servants, the removal of 15 such structures on 77 traffic corridors aimed at their decongestion and nine for the construction of the six-lane Delhi-Saharanpur Expressway.

According to government sources, out of the latest list of an estimated 20 sites where religious structures were identified as encroaching upon government land identified in 2022, those which had been pending for the longest duration so far, almost four months, related to the decongestion of 77 traffic corridors in Delhi mostly in north east Delhi. These include four temples and one mazar.

The rest, pending for between four days to a little over 40 days, include structures located in areas such as Dilshad Garden, Nauroji Nagar, Mandi House, Patparganj and Mayapuri among others.