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In Gurugram, the fight for public land is as much about economics and livelihoods as it is about urban order. At the heart of the conflict are those who build, sell, and live where the law says they cannot, and the civic bodies determined to clear them out.
Encroachers in Gurugram are not a monolith. They range from street vendors with pushcarts, hutment dwellers in informal settlements, and families in long-standing slums, to politically connected builders and even established institutions accused of grabbing public land. Many come here out of economic necessity – migrants seeking work, small traders chasing foot traffic, or developers exploiting regulatory gaps. For the poorest, occupation of government land is a survival strategy; for the powerful, it is often a calculated gamble that the system will look away.
Yet, when civic machinery moves in, the disruption is immediate and severe. Street vendors lose their daily income. Slum residents see entire communities dismantled in hours. Builders face demolition notices, litigation, and reputational damage. For those on the margins, eviction can mean losing not only shelter but also access to water, sanitation, and electricity, forcing them into cycles of displacement.
Against this backdrop, Gurugram’s authorities have been running one of the city’s most aggressive anti-encroachment campaigns in years. Since December 2024, over 120 drives and nearly 500 inspection visits have been conducted, reclaiming more than 130 acres of public land from unauthorised occupation. Officials say 70 locations have been cleared so far, spanning sectors 21/22, 62, and 63, as well as Badshahpur, Naurangpur, Kasan, and key stretches along the Southern Peripheral Road.
The campaign has targeted all types of encroachment: illegal roadside kiosks, green belts turned into parking zones, and even high-value plots occupied by prominent developers and institutions. Past inspections have revealed stark examples, such as a reputed hospital holding 2,700 square yards of encroached land, and Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) itself found with 6,493 square yards in Jharsa.
Leading the charge is district nodal officer RS Bhath, coordinating teams from the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), HSVP, and Traffic Police. This multi-agency task force has now shifted into a higher gear. From August 15 to September 15, five enforcement teams, each with 5–8 members, will operate daily, targeting five different locations every day. The aim is to make encroachment removal not an event, but a routine.
Authorities say this change is strategic. Earlier operations, though effective, were periodic, allowing encroachers time to return. The implications go beyond open sidewalks and reclaimed green belts. Urban planners see such operations as essential to maintaining mobility, reducing congestion, and improving safety. Removing roadside stalls, for example, not only frees up pedestrian space but also reduces accident risks and improves traffic flow. Green belt restoration helps manage stormwater and maintain city aesthetics.
However, critics point out that without parallel investments in affordable housing and designated vending zones, eviction alone cannot solve the problem. Gurugram’s slums and informal markets exist largely because legal options for low-income groups are scarce. Street vending, in particular, is protected under the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, which mandates that vendors be accommodated in planned spaces rather than simply evicted.
Bulldozers Meet Urban Dreams: Gurugram’s rapid urbanisation and high-value real estate make every square foot of land contested. For civic authorities, encroachments are both a legal violation and a public inconvenience. For many residents and traders, they are the only affordable foothold in an expensive city.
What emerges is a picture of a city in negotiation with itself, balancing development with inclusion, legality with livelihood. As bulldozers roll daily over the next month, the question is not whether the government can reclaim land, since it clearly can, but whether it can also address the economic drivers that push people onto it in the first place. Until then, the battle for urban space will remain a cycle: occupation, eviction, and return, repeated on the streets of Gurugram like clockwork.
