Bulldozers to hit illegal Darjeeling hill houses - Buildings identified, crackdown from today

Darjeeling, Nov. 2: The Darjeeling Municipality has decided to bulldoze from tomorrow buildings that have come up “illegally” in town during the “political turmoil” in the hills.

“We have identified three-to-four buildings which have taken advantage of the political turmoil. The decision to bring down these structures has been taken considering the ecological fragility of the area we live in,” said Pemba Tshering Ola, the chairman of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-controlled civic board.

According to the West Bengal Municipality Act, buildings in the hills should not be more than 11.5m, which is roughly around four storeys. The earlier GNLF board had adopted a by-law and raised the height to 13.5m.

The municipality had been defunct for a number of months earlier this year following a tug of war between the Morcha and the GNLF councillors.

The new board, which came to power in April, did not go by heights in metres but announced that buildings higher than four storeys were illegal.

In August, it demolished a part of a hotel in Chowrastha when its owner tried to erect a structure on the rooftop. The proprietor was known to be close to the Morcha.

Earlier, the municipality had said it would legalise all “illegal structures” (buildings which have more than four storeys) and evaluate their taxes.

“The policy to legalise these structures is still in place. But it would be applicable to only those buildings which had been constructed during the tenure of the previous board. We are taking action against those buildings which have come up recently,” said Ola.

The civic body has also decided to open up a town planning cell.

“We are working out the modalities and we plan to invite individuals, NGOs and experts to put forward their suggestions which will help us create Vision 2050. The paper will lay down a policy that other municipalities can also follow,” said the chairman.

The document will lay stress on the projected growth of the town till 2050. Ola said the civic body was also trying to streamline the water distribution in the town and the help of various agencies has been sought for the purpose.

The chairman said about 50 per cent of the water connections in the town were illegal and the distribution was uneven. The present supply system dates back to early 1930s and the project was conceived to cater for a population of 40,000. The town has now a population of 1,60,000.

Against a daily requirement of 15-18 lakh gallons of water, the civic body supplies only 7-8 lakh gallons.

Although it is expected that there will be sufficient supply once the Rs 55.86 crore Balasun Project is implemented by the end of 2009, the civic authorities say the distribution system must be streamlined to ensure that every family in town gets enough water.