New Delhi: A two-storey house situated in south Delhi will be turned into an old age home by the state government. A local had encroached the gram sabha land and constructed a mansion on it. In an anti-encroachment drive conducted last year in August, the revenue department took over the land.

An official told that the lieutenant governor (LG) had approved the allotment of the land in Dera Mandi village to the social welfare department to provide shelter to the elderly people. The land has been given free of cost for 99 years to the social welfare department.

While Rajendra Pal Gautam, social welfare minister, said that after necessary arrangements were made, senior citizens would be shifted to the mansion which is in a good condition. The minister added that the government had approved the construction of some old age homes, however, the work was on hold as the authorities could not acquire permission for felling of trees.

The two-storey building was taken over to send a message to organisations, religious sects and others that government land could not be encroached upon. The anti-encroachment drive conducted by the south district administration last year led to a surprising discovery that government and forest lands four times the size of Rashtrapati Bhawan had been encroached by influential local persons, politicians and religious sects among others.

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