DDA bulldozers coming,top Pak diplomats hunt for houses

Four of the top diplomats in the Pakistan High Commission are staring at bulldozers from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA),for they are living in what are considered illegal bungalows and cottages. They include Pakistan High Commission’s Minister (Public Affairs) Shah Zaman Khan,Defence and Military Advisor Brigadier Mohammad Iqbal and Counsellor Abid Saeed.

They live in a sprawling leafy neighbourhood in the tony South Delhi colony Vasant Kunj,and the complex is called Shanti Sports Club. It has cottages and bungalows which,the Supreme Court has ruled,have been built on encroached public land. The diplomats are now planning to vacate them by the end of this month.

Senior DDA officials say the encroachment was carried out by owners of the Shanti Sports Club,who had been leased out the land for sporting activities. But the owner,they say,encroached upon 11.22 acres of land adjoining the sports complex,built residences and gave them on rent to Pakistani diplomats.

This charge is denied by Shanti Sports Club owner Satish Khosla,who says: “It was my land,but I lost the case in Supreme Court.”

Incidentally,Shanti Sports Club has served as a home for Pakistani diplomats for almost two decades now,since 1991. At one point,almost half the standard strength — of about 14 diplomats — in the country’s High Commission in Delhi lived here.

After years of litigation between the DDA and the Shanti Sports Club in trial courts and the Delhi High Court,the Supreme Court in August last year ordered the DDA to demolish the houses and reclaim the land. It was to be done by November 30 last year.

DDA officials say the Ministry of External Affairs had to intervene,albeit informally,to allow the diplomats more time to move out to a suitable accommodation before their cottages were razed .

The DDA,however, has time constraints as well.

“The land is required for Commonwealth Games infrastructure,” DDA spokesperson Neemo Dhar told Newsline.

The agency is planning to build a road through the reclaimed land,which will connect 2,709 houses on either side of the Shanti Sports Club complex.

These houses will be used as tourist lodges to accommodate people visiting India to watch the Commonwealth Games in October