Despite some resistance from the traders, the team of the Municipal Corporation and the district administration continued with its anti-encroachment drive in the city area on Wednesday. However, at many places, the locals removed encroachments before the demolition squad arrived.  On Tuesday, the PWD officials had earmarked the encroachments in red circles following which some traders started to remove the illegal structures on their own.

The team started its drive along the stretch from Chandracharya Chowk to the Arya Nagar area in Jwalapur.  Shops found standing on encroached land were razed down with JCB machines. The squad was led by the municipal commissioner Lalit Narayan Mishra and SDM Manish Kumar.

Tempers frayed as the demolition drive continued to pull down squatters as those being affected by the drive alleged that the team members paid no heed to their objections.

However, acting wisely, the inmates of the Cabinet Minister Satpal Maharaj’s Prem Nagar Ashram started to demolish the identified structures themselves well before the squad arrived. The ashram gate was dismantled and the rubble was removed by the ashram office bearers themselves.

Speaking to The Pioneer on Wednesday, SDM Manish Kumar said, “The High Court-ordered anti-encroachment drive on both sides of Jwalapur Road was carried out today. The people were asked to free about three feet space from the main road. Some people removed the encroachments on their own.” 

Interestingly, while the district Congress president Sanjay Agarwal blamed the PWD officials for making wrong measurements, he removed the encroachments of his own establishment at Arya Nagar Chowk.

However, the office bearers of Vyapar Mandal, the traders’ body, have demanded compensation to the tune of Rs 20 lakh to the traders whose shops were pulled down from the district administration.

The demolition squad faced resistance from the residents of Indira Nagar Basti near Arya Nagar Chowk.

The members of Sanyukt Jan Morcha have decided to serve a memorandum to the District Magistrate, demanding regularisation of the slum colonies to keep the demolition squad away from the area.