The Media’s Do Bigha Zameen

Who's afraid of the press? Not HUDA and Gurgaon's property giants. As an elite media housing colony discovered.

WrittenBy:Aastha Manocha
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Land reclamation, dealing with touts, government and RWA standoffs – woes of the common man, not of the first citizens of India. And no, we aren’t speaking of politicians or Bollywood royalty. We are talking of the first among equals – the press. We all know that no one messes with the press – whether it be cops or government authorities.

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But that is not the case, as the National Media Centre in the Gurgaon suburb of Delhi has discovered. The National Media Centre, just off the National Highway 8, is home to a number of eminent media personalities like Jug Suraiya, T N Ninan, Inder Badhwar and others. One would think that a place which is home to a number of presswallas wouldn’t have to suffer any of the usual bugbears that haunt the junta.

The residents of National Media Centre had built a green belt within the premises of their colony, but awoke a few days back to find that the land had been taken over by DLF, ILFS and the Delhi Rapid Metro. The boundary wall had been broken down at 5am. According to the General Secretary of the National Media Centre, Kulwant Singh, they had maintained a green belt around the housing co-operative. But now, DLF and HUDA, who want to expand the road for a Rapid Metro Rail project, have demolished the boundary wall and want to continue their road construction on the 2 acres of land.  He said, “there are many senior citizens living here, senior in every sense of the term, if I may say so”. He goes on to list former president KR Narayanan’s home, 6 editors and professors etc who own houses there.

“When the pillars were to come up last year they (DLF/HUDA) made a forcible entry by bulldozing the wall. The case is presently in court, and on the day of the hearing on 8th May, they came with 6 bulldozers and around 50 policemen at 5:30 am”. Speaking about the road expansion project he says that with the Gurgaon toll plaza proposed to be removed this expansion is no longer necessary.

The question is who actually owns the land. In 2010, media reports had said that the residents’ association had handed over two acres of land to HUDA without following proper procedure. HUDA then transferred the land to DLF for its Rapid Metro Rail Gurgaon. A four-member committee of the residents had been formed to look into how the land was transferred in this way.

But that is not the case, as the National Media Centre in the Gurgaon suburb of Delhi has discovered. The National Media Centre, just off the National Highway 8, is home to a number of eminent media personalities like Jug Suraiya, T N Ninan, Inder Badhwar and others. One would think that a place which is home to a number of presswallas wouldn’t have to suffer any of the usual bugbears that haunt the junta.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had then ordered a stay on the land transfer after a petition by Sunil Mehta, Narayan Parwani, Inderjit Badhwar and Sudha Marwah. They had reportedly alleged that the land was handed over illegally under the NMC’s management headed by Raj Chengappa, editor of the newspaper Tribune.

However, Mr Singh insists that the property remains that of the National Media Centre as the title is in their name.

“If they did want to acquire the land, there is a proper procedure to do that. This is great mischief, a most uncivilised way of taking this up”, he said.

Land grab, demolition of green belts and the dreaded bulldozers. Looks like Niyamgiri has come down to NMC and even the mighty media men and women have to approach the courts getting stay orders and the usual rigmarole. Pain of the common man, we say.

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