Avas Vikas department of the Uttar Pradesh government demolished 22 shops in Meerut’s Central Market, following a Supreme Court order issues in December 2024. The action, carried out by the Meerut Housing and Development Board, marks the culmination of a decade-long legal dispute over encroachments. It is part of a wider urban ritual of bulldozers belatedly doing the work meant for planners. Authorities let “illegal” markets grow for decades, then flatten them as well as the economic activity they generate when court orders and other pressures catch up.
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