Ahmedabad, Apr 30 (PTI) A mega demolition drive to clear encroachments in Chandola lake area in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad continued for the second day on Wednesday with a state minister asserting that the government would take back the entire 1.25 lakh square metres of the illegally occupied land.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and the city police on Tuesday launched the massive demolition drive in the area days after illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were detained from the settlements built on the periphery of the water body.
Talking to reporters from the site, Gujarat’s Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi, who monitored the operation, said illegal Bangladeshi migrants had created an illegal settlement on the land spread across 1.25 lakh square metres surrounding the lake in Dani Limda area of the city.
“Will will clear encroachment and take back every inch of this government land. The administration as well as police are carrying out the operation with a humane approach. Nearly 1.25 lakh square metres of land was encroached by illegal Bangladeshi settlers. The drive to clear this encroachment is still on,” he said.
The minister collected information about the ongoing demolition from city commissioner of police G S Malik and municipal commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani.
In the aftermath of the terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, the city police raided Chandola lake area on April 26 and detained over 150 Bangladeshi nationals living illegally in the area with the help one Lalu Pathan aka Lallu Bihari.
According to Malik, an FIR was registered against Lalu Pathan, the mastermind behind the encroachment on government land at Chandola Lake. He also helped illegal Bangladeshi immigrants get rental accommodation and Aadhaar cards.
As per the FIR, registered by the crime branch on Tuesday, Pathan along with his son Fateh Mohammad Pathan and six others were involved in electricity theft, providing illegal electricity connections to settlers, misusing electricity bills to prepare rent agreements and take rent from houses built on government land.
Pathan and others, who are still at large, are booked for theft, criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery.
Deputy Municipal Commissioner B C Parmar had said nearly 2,000 illegally built houses, hutments and other properties were identified for demolition.
While the Ahmedabad civic body has deployed over 70 earthmover machines and 200 dump trucks to clear encroachment, nearly 2,000 policemen along with 20 companies of the State Reserve Police (SRP) have also been deployed by the government to maintain law and order during the drive, a government release said. PTI PJT PD NP
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.