Razed & enraged: Clashes erupt during drive in Delhi's Madanpur Khadar area

NEW DELHI: Clashes erupted between the residents and the police and paramilitary forces during a demolition drive conducted by South Delhi Municipal Corporation in Madanpur Khadar area close to the Delhi-Noida border on Thursday. After police baton-charged the angry crowd, some people, including area MLA Amanatullah Khan and his supporters, were arrested for obstructing a government servant from carrying out his duty.
The heavy police presence was visible at Kanchan Kunj, an unauthorised colony on the banks of the Yamuna close to Madanpur Khadar. Soon after the anti-encroachment exercise began, local residents raised slogans against the BJP-led municipal corporation and offered stiff resistance to the SDMC’s four JCBs, around 50 municipal workers and the security forces.
Delhi Police stopped Khan and his supporters 100 metres from the buildings being demolished. Khan remonstrated, “This is not an encroachment removal drive. They are bringing down the houses of poor people, and that is why I am protesting. I am also against encroachments, but the municipal corporations should point out such illegalities to the people who will remove them on their own.”
The protestors, including a large number of women, claimed the demolition drive was unjust and their houses were built on land bought on power of attorney. Khan alleged, “The corporation officials are so corrupt that they are sparing those who have paid them Rs 5 lakh, but bulldozing the other properties.”
Police talked to the angry residents and Khan’s representatives from around 11.30am till the melee around 2pm. An eyewitness, who was injured in the skirmish, said, “Some local youths started raising slogans against the cops and showed aggressive behaviour. Police then resorted to a lathi charge to disperse the crowd.” The cops then bundled Khan and his supporters into a police van. Esha Pandey, DCP (Southeast) said an FIR has been filed against Khan and his associates for rioting and obstructing public servants in discharing their duty. “Delhi Police can imprison me, not my spirits,” tweeted the MLA soon after.
Gul Mohammad, a property dealer and resident of Kanchan Kunj, said, “It takes a lifetime of savings for many people to build a house. The funny thing about all this is that everyone knows that no construction can take place without the knowledge of the civic officials. But today they came for an hour — all for the sake of politics.”
A harassed Bhagat Dayal, junior engineer in the building department of SDMC, said, “We have orders from the top to demolish all the illegal constructions in this locality. The demolition will continue till the time allowed to us under the rules.”
Asked whether they had specific names and list of illegal properties to be targeted, Dayal shrugged, “Our senior officials know about the spots and they tell us about the next target after one encroachment is cleared.”
Four buildings recently constructed but not occupied were brought down by the excavators. “This is not built on public property. We bought the land from villagers and then built our houses,” insisted Salma. “The government has no right to demolish these buildings or any other. I challenge them to act against all the unauthorised constructions across the city. Actions like today’s look like they are targeting Muslims, but remember, Hindus too live here.”
Vinod Kumar, a daily wage labourer who returned home last night from hospital after treatment for kidney stones, was worried. “Do you know which building they next plan to demolish?” he asked. “I’ve rented a room from a person who lives in Batla House, but if our building is targeted, we will be on the road.”
The commotion led to traffic congestion on the Delhi-Noida road and the Kalindi Kunj intersection remained clogged.