The Hindu      06.01.2011

Councillor's property sealed

As part of its ongoing drive against unauthorised constructions in the city, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Wednesday sealed two properties belonging to its councillor and Central Zone Ward Committee chairman Ravinder Choudhary for alleged misuse of residential property for commercial use.

The civic body's action followed complaints from the public grievance cell after which the MCD squad reached House H-58 and H-59 at South Extension Part-I where Mr. Choudhary was allegedly misusing the property to run a girls paying guest accommodation and other commercial offices.

The MCD squad also demolished the top floor of the two properties as they were illegally constructed and taller than the permissible height of 15 metres. According to civic body officials, the two properties were in the form of four-storey buildings and there were about 40 to 50 rooms in the two buildings combined. Though the exact count of girls is unknown, at least 20 girls reportedly lived in the paying guest accommodation.

Ravinder Chaudhary, however, defended his case by stating that his property was not sealed on charges of misuse but due to a PIL filed in the year 2002. According to him, in 2002 the area councillor Jagdish Lal had filed a PIL in court over illegal construction in the area.

The PIL was filed on 180 properties, two of which belonged to him. In the past three months, MCD had sealed nearly 45 properties named in the PIL.