In Mussoorie, ‘encroachments’ being marked using 1897 map as reference

The anti-encroachment activity which is due to start in the hill town shortly is seeing protests by many residents as the administration is using a map dating to 1897 as reference for marking buildings that they claim have encroached on public land. Officials of the municipal council who are conducting the drive said they are using the over 100-year-old map — which is around 2 metre long — as it is one of the most comprehensive ones available of the hill town. M L Shah, executive officer, Mussoorie Municipal Council, said, “The decision of using the map was taken by higher officials. It is an extremely comprehensive map which is helping us a lot in making a list of properties to be marked as encroachment.” However, most residents and business owners said that using a map that is more than a century old as a reference for marking encroachments was “highly impractical.”