Sealing drive to resume in Asola Bhati

After three days of lull, sealing and anti-encroachment drive is all set to resume against illegal constructions on 197 acres of land in Asola Bhati village of South Delhi with the Supreme Court on its stay on the ongoing drive and allowing the authorities to proceed as per the law. The massive demolition drive was initiated in March under the direction of a Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee to remove encroachment on government and forest land. The encroaches were issued notices to remove their encroachments themselves but they refused to comply with the order, forcing the authorities to take action against them. As per an estimate, 99 acres out of total 197 acres of government land had been encroached upon in the area. Almost entire 26 acres of Gaon Sabha land has been usurped and 47 acres out of 142 acres of forest land has also been encroached upon by land grabber. Asola has been in the news for fraudulent land deals. In February, some of these cases came under the scanner of the CBI and the agency proceeded to register FIRs.