Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta holds a high-level meeting at the Secretariat to review O-Zone issues affecting several villages and unauthorised colonies, in New Delhi on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday said no existing structure in the city’s O-zone, housing an estimated 15 lakh people across 91 unauthorised colonies and nearly a dozen villages, will be demolished.
The assurance came after the CM chaired a meeting to address the concerns of residents living in the protected, eco-sensitive zone along the 22-km Yamuna floodplain stretch in Delhi from Wazirabad to Okhla, where permanent construction is banned.
During the meeting, which was attended by Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Ramvir Singh Bidhuri (South Delhi) and Manoj Tiwari (North East Delhi), along with Gandhi Nagar MLA Arvinder Singh Lovely, Municipal Commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar, among others, Ms. Gupta directed authorities to revise the signboards to prevent panic among residents.
Last week, various agencies installed signboards across the O-zone, warning against construction activities. Following this, residents’ welfare associations from several areas, including Sangam Vihar in the north, Shastri Park in the north-east, and Jaitpur in south-east Delhi, approached elected representatives expressing apprehension over the demolition of houses.
Ms. Gupta said she would soon meet Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal, along with other public representatives from the Capital, to discuss the issue. The two Lok Sabha members said they would seek “justice for 15 lakh people” from Mr. Lal.
HC’s May 26 order
The meeting was held against the backdrop of a Delhi High Court order last month directing the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to submit a report on demolition measures taken to prevent further unauthorised construction in the O-zone. The CM clarified that the court had only flagged ongoing construction activities in the area.
In its order on May 26, the court had noted that residential colonies in the protected zone are not eligible for regularisation, no ownership rights are being granted, and that the existence of residential colonies in the eco-sensitive zone “would be completely impermissible”. It will hear the matter in July.
On Monday, Mr. Bidhuri and Mr. Tiwari submitted a memorandum to Lieutenant-Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu urging him to exclude the residential colonies and villages from the O-zone.
Published – June 10, 2026 12:53 am IST
