South Delhi civic body passes policy to regularise farmhouses
South Delhi Municipal Corporation passed the controversial farmhouse and motel violations regularisation policy on Friday. This was despite the fact that the matter is sub judice following the monitoring committee’s objections and the opposition’s noise against it. Congress’ Abhishek Dutt, who led the opposition against the policy, said the corporation doesn’t even have the authority to pass it. “NGT has already taken a suomotu action on it, monitoring committee has rejected it by challenging it in Supreme Court, so why is this policy being passed in such a hurry? Whose interests are being taken care of?” Dutt said. Leader of the House KamaljeetSehrawat rejected allegations of a dealing being struck between the BJP-led corporation and farmhouse owners. “Court will do its work while deciding the matter, the corporation is doing its work,” Sehrawat said. The committee has already urged the apex court to quash the policy. It opined that farmhouses were meant only for residential purposes and a temporary policy was framed by the Delhi government to fulfil public needs. Under the Master Plan Delhi 2021, the authorities will develop suitable places to hold weddings and other social gatherings, it added. Corporation officials said no explicit stay has been granted by the court. Motels, which were earlier allowed to have a ground coverage of 15%, can now increase it to 40%. For farmhouses, the ground coverage has gone up to 30%.
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