sdmc plans sabotage campaign at five places in next eight days

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Wednesday launched an eight-day anti-encroachment drive. The southern civic body used bulldozers to clear encroachments outside the Karni Singh Shooting Range in Tughlakabad. There is a program to conduct demolition drive in Shaheen Bagh on Thursday.

The south civic body has written to the Delhi Police asking it to provide necessary forces, including women police constables, to SDMC employees to help maintain law and order while removing encroachments.

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SDMC Mayor Mukesh Suryan termed the exercise a “general anti-encroachment campaign”. In less than a week, Mr. Suryan speaking to HinduHe also spoke of carrying out a “large-scale” anti-encroachment drive in several areas, including Sarita Vihar, Okhla and Shaheen Bagh.

He made these remarks after a letter written by Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta to the South civic body on April 20, asking him to remove encroachments “by Rohingyas, Bangladeshis and anti-social elements” in their areas.

A senior SDMC official familiar with the details of the drive said, “These are routine exercises, which are planned on the basis of inspections. Whenever we get help from the police, they are executed. We [SDMC] It has been made clear in recent weeks that there is no separate or specific drive to remove encroachments.

Apart from Shaheen Bagh, SDMC has also planned to conduct anti-encroachment drive in Kalindi Kunj, Amar Colony, New Friends Colony and Lodhi Road till May 13.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation drew criticism after an anti-encroachment drive carried out in Jahangirpuri, four days after the area witnessed communal violence. The campaign was halted midway following the status quo order of the Supreme Court.

concerned citizens

Meanwhile, a group of women activists and scholars have written to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, the Chief Minister of Delhi and the heads of three municipal bodies to stop the “illegal demolition in Delhi” and to compensate, rehabilitate and restore livelihoods. Intermittently affected.

The signatories of the letter include economist Jayati Ghosh, social activists Anjali Bhardwaj and Natasha Narwal and All India Progressive Women’s Association member Kavita Krishnan.

The letter said the demolition should be acknowledged as “communal and politically motivated” and be part of a nationwide action by the BJP to attack Muslim lives, practices and livelihoods.

“It is appalling that bulldozers hired by civic authorities are targeting temporary structures essential for livelihood like handcarts and cycle carts, fruit stalls, gumtis, and a wooden ‘shop’ table. These structures are used by some of the poorest communities in the city across the country,” the letter read.

It said the action to destroy the valuables of some of the city’s poorest residents was “unprecedented in the history of Delhi”.

The letter also called on officials to “assure the Muslim residents of Delhi that they are just like any other community in the city, and that they will be offered full protection of the law and the Constitution.”