DU college ‘accused’ of land grabbing by SDMC

In what could be called as clear case of land grabbing, it has come to light that Dyal Singh College on Lodhi Road has ‘illegally grabbed’ around one hectare of South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (SDMC) land, developed ahead of Commonwealth Games (CWG) in 2010.

The land in question was adjacent to Dyal Singh College campus. A senior civic officer, requesting anonymity, has revealed that the said piece of land was once a huge open drain which was covered and renovated ahead of CWG for parking of buses.  

However, after the Games were over the college allegedly took over the area by stretching its boundary walls. ‘The land belongs to South Corporation and technically it can be said that Dyal Singh College has illegally grabbed the land without informing the civic authority,’ said the officer.

Dyal Singh College authorities have said that the boundary walls were always there and the land was allotted to the college by Land and Development Authority (L&DO) for playground, the claim refuted by the South Corporation officials.

‘The land always belonged to the college. Buses were allowed to be parked there during the CWG on the insistence of government due to shortage of parking space,’ said IS Bakshi, principle of Dyal Singh College.

Surprisingly, the matter came to the notice of the South Corporation only when Delhi’s transport department asked the civic body to allot the land to Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) for parking its fleet of buses. The area can supposedly park around 200-300 buses.

‘The college was building its boundary right under our nose and we didn’t even notice it. Had the corporation paid attention earlier, the damage could have been avoided,’ the officer said.

When asked to comment on the matter, Manish Gupta, Commissioner of SDMC informed that the drain was covered by the civic body and those within the area under its jurisdiction is the responsibility of the corporation. 

‘The SDMC spent around Rs 50 crore on the development of that land. Why will it give it to the college when it can be used for better purposes,’ questioned Gupta adding that ‘the matter has now been referred to the Delhi government.’