Farm house of Mika Singh sealed

By Haryananewswire

CHANDIGARH, MARCH 28

The district administration Gurgaon today sealed all those farm houses in village Roz Ka Gujjar which were illegally running small tourism units and other commercial activities. The borewells installed there were also demolished and electricity connection disconnected.

 As per the orders of Deputy Commissioner P C Meena, a team of local officers including SDM Gurgaon South Vivek Kalia, DTP (E) Anil Dabas, Divisional Forest Officer Ranjeeta, officials of Revenue department and Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) with the help of Police inspected the farm houses. On finding commercial activities there, these farm houses were sealed.

List of violations carrying sign boards include Camp Caravon, Mercury Himalayan adventures, Sans eco-adventures, Water banks, Dream Islands, Farm house of Mika Singh etc. Most of these units have hut like kuccha and RCC structures for tourism and farm house purposes. Besides these, small constructions like bore well chamber, fenced lands, single rooms etc, which are lying defunct as on date, could also be seen.

According to a member of the team, groups of tourists could be seen in one of these premises holding the name Dream Island, by which it is clearly evident that tourism activities are going on in this premise.

It may be recalled that a few days back, the Deputy Commissioner P C Meena alongwith team of concerned officers SDM Gurgaon South Vivek Kalia, DTP (E) Anil Dabas, Deputy  Conservator of Forests Gurgaon, Regional Officer HSPCB North Gurgaon, Tehsildar  Sohna and Range Forest Officer Sohna had a field visit of village Roz Ka Gujjar in Sohna Tehsil area. The National Green Tribunal had raised objection to running of commercial activities in village Roz Ka Gujjar, of which about 75 percent area falls under Forest area. Following directions to get these activities stopped, Mr Meena himself inspected the area and constituted a team of local officers to carry out the exercise.

As per the orders of Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner, the team under leadership of Gurgaon South SDM Vivek Kalia visited village Roz ka Gujjar today for assessing the extent of violations and it was found that there are constructions raised in this village .The revenue records reveal that the areas where in constructions are raised fall under areas closed under section 4 and 5 of Punjab Land Preservation Act, (PLPA) 1900 and thus are in violation of Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and also Aravalli notification of Ministry of Environment & Forests, dated way back on 7/5/1992. Violations of Controlled Area Act were also seen.

Further as per the orders of Mr Meena, in absence of consolidation, no construction in village Roz ka Gujjar can be taken up. According to Divisional Forest Officer, the Forest department has dug trenches in this village to cut off the movement of tourist vehicles and notice boards carrying warnings of violation of Forest laws were also displayed. Despite this, the small tourism units were found functional.

The DFO made it clear that these constructions are in violation of section 2 of Forest conservation Act,1980 as these fall within areas closed under section 4 and 5 of PLPA , 1900 which are to be treated as forest as per the orders of Hon’ble Supreme Court. Forest department has already taken cognizance of these offences.

In the light of tourism activities going on in the area, which is a non forestry activity, notices were issued and the owners were asked to stop commercial activities.

If they try to take up such commercial activities again, further action like registering of FIR and other penal proceedings as per the order of Deputy Commissioner will be taken up against violators, said SDM Gurgaon South.