New Delhi, October 24
A Delhi court has issued notices to the Centre, the urban bodies in the Capital and the Don Bosco Educational Society on a petition seeking cancellation of lease of a vast stretch of land in Okhla, allegedly being misused by the society.
Civil Judge Ajay Pandey has asked the Union government, the DDA, the MCD and the Don Bosco Society to file their responses to the petition on February 2, 2004.
Mr E A Maseyk, a former employee of the society, alleged that the 22-acre plot, which was allotted by the DDA to impart technical education and training, was being used as a ‘’transit lodge’’ for guests from around the world.
The land, which was allotted for operating the Don Bosco Technical Institute in 1965, has been converted into a Provincial House-Cum- Training Centre, he said.
He alleged that the campus was being used for holding conferences, parties and propagating religion. It was also being used to house poor tribal women from Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, who were later sent abroad as sisters.
The petitioner submitted that in the name of social service, the society had also availed of other facilities like subsidised electricity and special assessment rates for the purpose of taxation by the MCD.
Seeking cancellation of the lease, the petitioner submitted that he had written to the authorities concerned when the construction of the Provincial House was started in August 2000 and to the Urban Development Ministry in February 2002.
