Mika Singh’s farmhouse sealed in Sohna

An official of the town and country planning said, “In compliance of NGT orders in Sonya Gosh vs State of Haryana and others, a demolition-cum-sealing drive was carried out with the help of police force on Tuesday against three unauthorised farmhouses in the reservoir area near Damdama Lake in Sohna.”

A team led by district town planner (enforcement) Amit Madholia, assistant town planner Sumit Malik, assistant town planner Dinesh Singh and two other officials of town and country planning department carried out the drive under its supervision.

Officials said naib tehsildar Sohna was appointed as the duty magistrate and police force from Sadar Sohna police station was present.

An official confirmed that one of the unauthorised farm houses belonged to Amrik Singh alias Mika Singh. “Notices had been served to the owners of these unauthorised structures which had been constructed without the requisite permissions in controlled and protected areas,” said the official.

Earlier in June 2020, the DTP (enforcement) Gurgaon had given a notice to Singh directing him to stop further construction of a farmhouse in the revenue estate of village Rojka Gujjar, Sohna tehsil in district Gurgaon stating that the unauthorised construction had been done in the controlled area declared around the primary school of village Damdama in violation of the Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Restriction of Unregulated Development Act, 1963.

In 2013, two farmhouses belonging to Singh in non-cultivable land near Damdama lake in Rojka Gujjar were sealed by Gurgaon administration for alleged violation of environmental laws.

In another demolition drive conducted by the DTCP on Wednesday, demolitions were carried out in a newly mushrooming unauthorised colony measuring over 1.5 acres in the revenue estate of village Binola in Pataudi-Haileymandi and a warehouse. A property dealer’s office was also demolished for violations, said officials.

Last month, the forest department in Faridabad had also issued notices to owners of several structures including farm houses built illegally on forest land in Aravallis. In July 2021, while hearing a case on the demolitions in Khori village in Faridabad, the Supreme Court had observed that the direction to remove all unauthorized structures standing on the forest land applied to all such structures without any exception. After the SC’s directions, the forest department had demolished several farmhouses constructed on forest land in the Aravallis on land notified under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA).