Farmhouses in Aravalis to be razed from December 12

GURUGRAM: Beginning December 12, the Sohna municipal committee will start razing the 179
farmhouses built illegally in the Raisina Aravalis, the state forest department told the National
Green Tribunal on Friday.
A total of 424 farmhouses in Sohna were deemed to have been constructed illegally on land that
is protected under Section 4 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) as ‘gair mumkin pahar
(uncultivable hill)’.
Of these, 80 had been demolished till November 30, 165 of them got a stay from courts and the
remaining 179 are to be brought down.

“We have already given out notices to the farmhouses, which will be demolished-on December
12 as per the NGT direction. Because of GRAP (Graded Response Action Plan against air
pollution), the process of demolition was delayed,” said an official of Sohna municipal
committee.
In September 2021, NGT had directed the Haryana and Rajasthan governments to take prompt
action to remove illegal structures in the Aravalis.
The order came as the court for hearing a petition by Sonya Ghosh (a Delhi resident), alleging
illegal construction in ‘gair mumkin pahar’ area.
The case dates back to 2013, when the NGT took suo motu cognizance after TOI published a
report titled — ‘How private players grabbed forest land in the Aravalis’—on January 7.
Later that year, it became the Sonya Ghosh vs. state of Haryana. Gurgaon deputy
commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav said the administration will send a duty magistrate for the
demolition in Sohna.