CHANDIGARH: Speeding up the process for removal of around 3,300 residential and commercial properties constructed within the restricted zone of 300 metres around the Air Force ammunition depot in Gurugram, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday asked the district administration to issue notices regarding removal of these structures within a month.A division bench headed by Justice Surya Kant set the one-month deadline for completing the process of issuing notices under the Works of Defence Act after hearing the status report submitted by Gurugram deputy commissioner (DC) Vinay Pratap Singh The DC told the court that as per a recently conducted survey, the administration had identified 3,346 structures within the restricted zone of 300m of the ammunition depot. These include 2,421 independent houses, 920 multi-tenant structures and five apartments.Singh said that various aspects including dimensions/geo references of properties, area occupied by the building units/structures, names of owners/occupant tenant, nature of construction, type of land use residential or commercial, details of services laid in the area, detail of government land/institutions and total affected population are yet to be assessed for which survey was being carried out through Gurugram Municipal Corporation.“After the above detailed survey of the area, as per Section 4 of the Works of Defence Act, 1903, the necessary notices under section 9 of the Act will be issued to all residential and property holders for assessment of compensation. Once award is announced under section 12 of the Act, the notices for removal of structures would be issued,” informed the DC.Hearing that, the bench asked the districts administration to complete the process of issuing notices regarding removal of structures within a month. The case would now be heard on April 18.The matter had reached before the Punjab and Haryana high court in 2010 through public interest litigation (PIL) seeking removal of constructions from 100m area around Air Force Station, Dabua, in Faridabad, and construction within 900m around the Air Force Station, Gurugram.Following court intervention, in September 2015, the Union government had told the HC that the restricted zone around ammunition depot of the Air Force in Gurugram had been decreased from 900m to 300m. In Faridabad, the restricted zone would continue to be 100m.On July 28, 2016, the Centre designated both the DCs of Gurgaon and Faridabad as collectors empowering them to take action accordingly.

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