Row over wall: Mhow court stays construction work

Mhow: A

Mhow court

has ordered a stay on the construction of a wall undertaken by the Military Engineer Services (MES) near Gurukul colony in Kodariya village. The order was passed by the court on Saturday evening in the joint petition filed by the residents of three colonies.

“The petition was filed on Friday and the court had fixed its hearing on Saturday. As per the order the status quo will be maintained and no further construction can be carried out till further orders,” Kodariya sarpanch Anuradha Joshi told TOI.

The residents of Gurukul Colony, Manas Rajat Vihar and Rajat Greens had protested against the construction of the wall that would have cut off the approach road to their colonies. No sooner had the information about the stay on the construction spread in the area than the residents became cheerful. They understood that the passage will again be opened, but when they came to know about the order for maintaining status quo, they expressed their desire to fight the court case to get an order in their favour.

A few residents expressed their anger against the builder for concealing the fact at the time of purchase that the passage land belongs to the Army. “When I purchased a house in Manas Rajat Vihar colony, the colonizer Ashish Agrawal showed a letter and also given a copy of that letter to him written by the Army authorities in relation to the permission. It was shocking to know on Friday that the land belonged to the Army,” said a LIC official Mohan Pant.

RS Rathore, a retired MES employee, said “When I visited the colony before buying the house, I saw that the passage was marked with lime powder. The colonizer’s representative told me that one can enter the colony through the passage. My whole family is in shock as we will have to cover a long distance to reach the main road. Also, the road is in very bad shape”

The promoter of Manas Rajat Vihar and Rajat Greens colonies Ashish Agrawal also spoke about the permission letter issued by Mhow station headquarters. He said, “I had purchased the land from one Gafoor, a resident of Banda Basti. At that time Gafoor had handed over a permission letter issued by Mhow station headquarters. The letter dated September 17, 1987 was signed by the then Administrative Commandant Col KS Sandhu. I have been meeting Army officers on the basis of that letter only for last eight months when the

wall construction

work started.”

Interestingly, the said letter does not mention about the land, which is under dispute between Army and civilians as the permission for the passage was given on 50 by 7 feet land, which is behind the MES inspection bungalow. The said land is on the left side of the bungalow and measures about 400 by 25 feet.


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