Just a day before the National Green Tribunalis scheduled to hear a case on restoration of water bodies in the district, the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation on Tuesday lodged an FIR against 117 individuals for usurping areas in and around Arthala Lake in Sahibabad.

In a recent hearing, the NGT had taken a serious view of the encroachments and had sought personal appearance of principal secretary, urban development. This led to divisional commissioner, Meerut, Prabhat Kumar visiting Ghaziabad and directing officials to book encroachers of water bodies under Goonda Act.

"The FIR has been lodged under Section 420 of IPC (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and under the provisions of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act against 117 individuals on the complaint of officials of Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation," said Sudhir Tyagi, SHO, Sahibabad police station.

Additional municipal commissioner D K Sinha, meanwhile, said: "In keeping with the directions of divisional commissioner at a meeting held recently, we lodged an FIR in Sahibabad police station and in days to come more such FIRs will be lodged against encroachers of water bodies within municipal limits."

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/