Illegal colonies continue to thrive as nearly 100 acres have been found to have been encroached by the land mafia who are selling unauthorized plots in Sector 75 of Noida. Local residents say that even though Noida Authority officials know about this, no action has been taken by them yet.

Residents allege that scores of people who want to build their dream home in the NCR are being cheated by the illegal colonizers.

A TOI team visited Sector 75 and found that the green belt was heavily encroached on. Even construction was being undertaken on some of the plots. When the issue was raised before the Noida Authority, officials assured that they will conduct a drive to raze encroachments from Tuesday. “We will send a team to conduct a probe and the drive to demolish illegal construction on the land will begin from Tuesday,” said Noida Authority OSD, Manoj Rai.

The illegal colonizers have been taking advantage of the land row that has been going on in Greater Noida for quite some time. Sources said that as homebuyers fear that their investments may get stuck in Noida Extension projects, they are becoming easy prey to the land mafia who have been selling land at Rs 5,000 per square yard after illegally cutting plots on green belts.

The role of government agencies will also be put under the scanner as not only are electricity connections being provided to these colonies, but even the properties are being registered. “The colonizers assure buyers by saying that the land would be regularized and considered as abadi area of neighbouring villages,” said an Authority source.

Sources said that colonizers have been directly approaching the farmers and developing colonies on their farmlands. In some cases, even farmers are engaged in developing these colonies. This trend has been adopted from Loni area of Ghaziabad where illegal colonies have been developed on a large scale on farming land, which is illegal.