New Delhi: Bulldozers and JCBs reached Shaheen Bagh on Monday. The region witnessed a high voltage drama. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation pushed ahead with its anti-encroachment drive in the locality. The region was the hotbed of the anti-CAA stir a few years ago.
Apart from residents and heavy deployment of police force, Congress workers were also present at the spot. They were protesting against the anti-encroachment drive by sitting on dharna and blocking the way of bulldozers and JCBs. Many locals followed them.
According to India Today report, residents of Shaheen Bagh claimed there was no illegal encroachment on public land.
Wazib, a councillor who denied any encroachment on road number 13, said, “It is a CPWD road. MCD has nothing to do with it. People have left space in front of their roads.”
Aam Aadmi Party’s Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan was also present there. He reached the spot amid the commotion over the planned demolition drive. He said that this action is deliberately disturbing law and order. “I am here now. Let them show where the encroachment is,” he added.
Encroachment drives were planned in SDMC areas. They were planned after Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta wrote to the party-ruled civic body’s mayor on April 20 to remove encroachment by “Rohingyas, Bangladeshis and anti-social elements”.
The SDMC said, “The drive to raze unauthorised structures on roads and government land in the Shaheen Bagh area was planned for Thursday, May 5, but it couldn’t be undertaken due to the unavailability of adequate police back-up.”
Amid the communal conflicts in the Jqahangirpuri, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation demolished several residences and shops in an ostensibly anti-encroachment effort.
Last week, against the south Delhi civic body’s demolition drive the CPI(M)’s Delhi unit and Hawkers Union moved the Supreme Court. They termed it a “violation of principles of natural justice, statutes and the Constitution” under the guise of an anti-encroachment drive.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
