Around 1,800 occupants of homes and shops in Ali village, south Delhi, have been served notices to vacate 8.48 acres of land belonging to the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department, with police-assisted clearance scheduled for September 27 if the premises are not emptied by the deadline.
The notices were issued by a court-appointed bailiff and have been pasted on approximately 1,500 houses and shops along both sides of Pushta Road, between Ali Chowk and Shiv Mandir. Notices have also been placed on around 300 houses in Peer Mohalla, according to a report by Jagran – New Delhi.
Residents and shopkeepers have been given until September 26 to remove their belongings. After the deadline, the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department is expected to take possession of the land, with the reported clearance action to be carried out with police assistance on September 27.
The land falls in the Jamia-Okhla area under Ali village and is connected to irrigation and flood-control land along the Yamuna. The report states that such land was transferred to the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department after Delhi became a Union Territory. Over time, portions of the land were occupied and developed into residential and commercial areas.
The dispute has a long legal history. A decision in favour of the Irrigation Department was delivered in 2002 after prolonged court proceedings. Some encroachments were removed in 2004, but action did not proceed in populated areas. Some occupants later approached the Delhi High Court, arguing that they possessed documents including Aadhaar cards, voter identity cards and electricity and water bills. They also claimed that the land formed part of the old village boundary and the lal dora area.
The Delhi High Court ruled in favour of the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department last year, according to the report. The latest notices followed consultations between the court-appointed bailiff and officials. The Uttar Pradesh government had earlier appointed executive engineer B.K. Singh as nodal officer for the matter.
The case highlights the administrative complexity created when long-standing settlements overlap with land recorded as belonging to another government department. The presence of voter-list entries and utility documents has also brought questions of residence, service access and land title into the dispute, although such documents do not by themselves establish ownership of the underlying land.
The immediate consequence is a potential clearance affecting a large number of occupied homes and businesses in a densely settled part of south-east Delhi. The reported next step is the police-assisted removal of occupants and transfer of the cleared land to the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department after the September 26 deadline.
