New Delhi: Bulldozers and JCBs reached Shaheen Bagh on Monday as the South Delhi Municipal Corporation pushed ahead with its anti-encroachment drive in the locality that was the hotbed of the anti-CAA stir a few years ago. Apart from residents and a heavy deployment of the police force, Congress workers were also present at the spot, protesting against the anti-encroachment drive by sitting on dharna and blocking the way of bulldozers and JCBs.
As per reports, residents said who 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.” Encroachment drives were planned in SDMC areas after Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta wrote to the party-ruled civic body’s mayor on April 20th to remove encroachment by “Rohingyas, Bangladeshis and anti-social elements”.
The SDMC said the drive to raze unauthorized 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 backup. Earlier, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation had torn down several homes and shops in Jahangirpuri in an ostensible anti-encroachment drive after communal clashes broke out in the area.