 "DDA demolishes Ponty Chaddha's Rs 400 cr farmhouse in land reclaim drive")
In a move to reclaim government land, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), on Saturday, demolished the farmhouse of the late liquor baron Ponty Chaddha, also known as Gurdeep Singh. The property, spanning approximately 10 acres in the Chhatarpur area of South Delhi, is valued at around Rs 400 crores.
The demolition operation began on Friday that reclaimed 5 acres of land. On Saturday, the drive continues to demolish the main building on the remaining portion of the farmhouse.
This action follows a series of similar operations aimed at retrieving illegally occupied government land. A similar drive was undertaken from January 13 to 17, 2024, in Gokulpuri, North East Delhi. During this campaign, encroachments over approximately 4 acres of land, including commercial showrooms like Raymonds, car dealerships such as TATA Motors, banquet halls, a hotel, and a godown, were demolished.
During this drive, Rat-hole miner Wakeel Hassan, also lost his house. Hours after the demolition, DDA officials offered Hassan to move to an EWS (economically weaker sections) flat at Narela. He rejected it saying it was "far and unsafe". Rejecting another offer of an accommodation in Dilshad Garden by the authorities, he said to the news agency PTI, "On Friday night, four government officers, including an SDM, came and offered me a house in Dilshad Garden but I refused to accept it as they wanted me to shift on a temporary basis." He was a part of the team of miners that rescued 41 construction workers trapped inside the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district by manually drilling through the debris in November last year.