‘It’s our heritage’: HC gives 4 mths to survey Tughlaqabad Fort encroachments | Delhi News

New Delhi: Taking a dim view of the delay in conducting a survey of historic Tughlaqabad Fort to identify encroachments, Delhi High Court on Wednesday gave four more months to finish the process.“You took six months to appoint a survey committee, despite orders of the court… even the committee could not ensure that the survey starts,” a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia told central govt’s counsel. “We will start summoning the officers, then it will pinch, officers should understand all this. Sept to March, you took just to finalise an agency for the survey.” The court said authorities “can’t deny the importance of maintaining this heritage”. It added, “More than yours, it is our heritage, we have to protect it. But it is also a human problem; we have to take care of it. We have to differentiate between original residents and those who have started shops outside and encroached.” The bench noted that a committee formed by it last year had zeroed in on a private agency to carry out the survey and directed that a work order to the selected agency be issued in 10 days.Addressing the issue of threats faced by the survey team, the bench ordered police protection. “Having regard to past experience when surveys couldn’t happen, we direct that as and when DG ASI makes a request for police assistance and protection to the survey team, the same shall be immediately provided by the police commissioner, who, in turn, shall be responsible for the team’s protection,” it noted. The court also made it clear that the survey agency appointed by Archaeological Survey of India shall “be personally liable and accountable to the court” in the current matter.On being referred the matter from Supreme Court, the high court is monitoring removal of encroachments from the heritage site and the process to rehabilitate those evicted. It earlier noted that the ancient monument of national importance reflected historical ethos and needed to be preserved and freed from all encroachments and illegal constructions.The court acknowledged that various encroachments had taken place in the fort area where a large number of families from the lower strata of society resided for long. So removal of illegal construction will also entail a human problem and authorities, including Centre, Delhi govt, ASI and municipal bodies, need to solve the issue together, it emphasised.The court then constituted a high-level committee with representatives from the union housing and urban affairs ministry, the urban development department, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, police, state govt, ASI and Delhi Development Authority to take steps to get the survey conducted and devise a joint policy decision not only for removal of illegal encroachment and construction but also to rehabilitate those who may be required to be uprooted and displaced.ASI earlier told HC that from the demarcation carried out, there did not appear to be any encroachment inside the monument, outside the monument and within its boundary wall, but encroachment existed outside its perimeter.The court has already prohibited all land transactions and building activities in the area and expressed concern over the “rampant and unabated” illegal constructions in the fort despite Supreme Court disallowing it.A PIL was filed in 2001 to protect, maintain and preserve the historic fort, an issue which the apex court had directed the high court to monitor. The apex court in Feb 2016 declared the entire fort as protected.