Urban development ministry to decide Sainik Farms’ fate

The Delhi High Court Monday asked the Urban Development Ministry to decide the fate of the Sainik Farms colony in south Delhi by the end of the year.
A division bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Mukta Gupta directed the government to take a final decision on the status of the colony by Dec 31, as proposed by Urban Development Secretary M. Ramachandran, who appeared before the court.

Noting Ramachandran’s undertaking that a decision whether to regularise unauthorised constructions on public or private land including Sainik Farms or not by Dec 31, 2010, the bench disposed off the petitions pending in the court for almost ten years.

The bench, however, asked the government to stick to the deadline.

“You will have to take a decision. You can’t come on Jan 1, 2011 that you are still hopeful and we will formulate a policy. We will not bother and you will not bother also. People don’t know what is happening,” it said.

The court was hearing a public interest petition seeking directions to the government for appropriate action against people who have encroached on public land and illegally constructed luxury houses in the Sainik Farms colony. Meanwhile, the residents of Sainik Farm also moved the court seeking regularisation of the colony, which has been pending since 2000.