"Are the farm houses in question really farmhouses? Do you see any farmer, the farm crop or the farm instrument?" the minister said adding the department has already started sending notices to the farm houses for demolition of unauthorised constructions. "The demolition drive will continue", he asserted.

``I will stick to my decision for not allowing farmhouses to come up on smaller land holdings and significantly increase their built-up area,'' Jagmohan told a press conference here on Monday.

Jagmohan recently reversed the old notification based on the Malhotra Committee report which permitted that farmhouses be allowed a built-up area to the extent of 5,500 sq ft saying these had been converted to residential houses of the highest category even much bigger than that of a cabinet minister'sbungalow.

Several farmhouses that have mushroomed here are being used for commercial purposes as banquet halls, restaurants and party spots for the rich and influential, the minister said.

Justifying his stand for reversing the order under which changes were made in Delhi's Master Plan in 1998 during Ram Jehtmalani's ministership, Jagmohan said, some of the farmhouses, showed no signs of any farming activity and were in fact bungalows of the rich and influential people.

Allowing increase in the area of these farmhouses or sub-division of plots would result in increased construction and the conversion of a green area into a residential area, he added.

Asked about the Opposition to his move by BJP MP, VK Malhotra, who headed the committee which recommended an increase in the area of farmhouses, Jagmohan said that recommendation was not in conformity with Delhi's Master Plan, approved by Parliament, and was thus not being included in the building by-laws.

Stating that the issue at stake was civicgovernance and the rule of law, Jagmohan said he did not want to make this a debate for scoring political points.

``I will go by principles, whatever be the consequences,'' he added. He pointed out the committee has exceeded its brief in recommending changes in the development control rule for farmhouses.

On Jagmohan's directions, the urban development ministry has recently struck down an earlier order, based on committee's recommendations for farmhouses.About unauthorised constructions in the central offices of the BJP and the Congress, Jagmohan said all parties had been given three years' time to move out of the government-allotted bungalows and construct their party offices in institutional areas. BJP has already applied for this, he added.