GURUGRAM: Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam DHBVN ) officials appealed before the Punjab and Haryana high court in Chandigarh on Wednesday for permission to give temporary electricity connections to nearly 6,000 illegally-built houses within the 300-metre radius of the ammunition depot Officials contended that since 2011 when the high court directed the department to stop giving new connections to houses in the restricted zone, occupants of newly-built houses had been resorting to stealing power, causing big losses to the department.KC Aggarwal, superintendent engineer from DHBVN, told TOI, “The department is losing nearly Rs five crore every month for not charging these occupants for electricity. They are directly tapping lines of the 10,000 people in the area, who were given connections before 2011. So, we have appealed that till the time that the fate of these occupants is decided by the court, DHBVN should be allowed to charge them for temporary connections. They will be made well aware about the temporary status of these connections.”The court directed deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh to file a report about the existing status of electricity and water connections given to occupants of the restricted zone and indicated that the final arguments in the case had to be made in the next hearing.In the last hearing, additional advocate general Lokesh Singhal had raised strong objections against the exercise of demolishing residential and commercial properties within the prohibitory zone. He said that in 2007, the Centre had not issued notices to occupants 18 months prior to beginning the exercise, according to Section 9 of Works of Defence Act. Under the section, the collector muct serve notices to occupants and the 18-month period could be extended up to three years to complete the work but that power was not delegated to him by the Centre. The responsibility was entrusted last year to the deputy commissioner of Gurugram. The high court has asked the Centre for its response on this matter.Hari Om Atri, revenue officer, said, “This questioning about the legality of the removal of structures can put the entire demolition exercise in a soup. On the other hand, it can also bring huge relief for the 6,000 occupants who are having sleepless nights fearing demolition of their houses or commercial premises at any given point of time.”He, however, added that until the court gave an order in this matter, the office of deputy commissioner would continue with the demolition exercise. “An agency has been selected to conduct a fresh survey of properties of occupants. It would also look into the 4,000 objections made by the occupants after the 2014 survey conducted by MCG,” he said.

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