Khandwa: Thursday saw one of the biggest anti-encroachment drives in Khandwa city of Madhya Pradesh. On a huge eight-hour-long drive, encroachments covering 2.5 acres of land surrounding the historic Shakkar Talab were destroyed. The city government, with the help of 500 security officials, sought the assistance of 10 JCBs and 4 pincers to demolish 114 illegal structures. Senior officials, the District Collector, the SP and the Municipal Commissioner were present at the spot to monitor the operation.
The crackdown, however, became political when Asaduddin Owaisi’s party, AIMIM, entered the scene. The AIMIM Madhya Pradesh unit posted a tag on X (previously Twitter) against Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, saying that the government is giving possibilities to the land mafias. The legality of the operation was being questioned by the party. It questioned, “Why was a road constructed there, if the land belonged to the pond? They also cried foul about the eviction of families who were given land pattas during the rule of the former MLA Hukumchand Yadav, whose daughter-in-law, Amrita Yadav, is the BJP Mayor, and under whose supervision the demolition took place.”
Reacting to the allegations made by AIMIM, Mayor Amrita Yadav forcefully denied the allegations made and termed it as a typical appeasement politics. The anti-encroachment drive is not against any community or individual, she made it clear. This will be a city-wide program to bring sanity and to preserve natural resources. It is very sad to associate it with politics or neighbourhood prejudice:
The Mayor also added that the demolition was under the Jal Ganga Sanrakshan Abhiyan, which was to preserve such water bodies as the Shakkar Talab. This continuous push, she emphasised, would be crucial to the urban planning and greening of the city, and would be done fairly throughout the city.
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