A one-page letter written by Executive Engineer (Building) of the Shahdara (south) zone — which sports over an estimated 200 illegal constructions — to the MCD Headquarters says that a scarcity of junior and assistant engineers has made it almost impossible to carry out “day-to-day work with the skeletal staff available” in his department.

The letter was written in December 2007 and was recently brought to the notice of a Bench led by Justice A K Sikri of the Delhi High Court.

The senior official blamed the increase in the number of wards in the zone from 16 in the “old set-up” to 30 as a reason for the present crunch. “In the new set-up, there should be at least 30 the Junior Engineers (JEs) and 15 Assistant Engineers (AEs) in the zone’s Building Department”.

Interestingly, the executive engineer points out in the letter that even though “all are aware” that action needs to be taken against illegal constructions in his zone as per the Supreme Court and High Court’s orders, the absence of the engineers prevents the civic body to implement the judicial directions.

“The numbers of the junior engineer staff is further dwindling. This will affect the demolition work in the zone,” reacts Court Commissioner Sanjeev Bhandari.

Interestingly, it was a report from Bhandari which had stirred the hornet’s nest in the zone. After an inspection of Krishna Nagar and Gandhi Nagar areas coming under the zone, the Court Commissioner found that “85-95 per cent of the occupants had made encroachments on government and public land”.

He pointed out to the court that “full-fledged balconies by way of projections exceeding the boundary walls” were a common feature in the zone.

Noting that demolition work in the area by the MCD was “merely cosmetic and selective”, Bhandari had demanded a “written explanation” from the MCD as what steps were being taken to increase the staff”. The letter, authored two months later, was, according to Bhandari, an off-shoot of that particular face-off between the MCD and the Court Commissioner.

“A status report filed on February 18, 2008 by the MCD in court claims that 54 illegal constructions, subject to verification, have been demolished in the zone. But they have only put on record photographs of about 15 such buildings were action has been taken,” said Bhandari.