Noida razes illegal furniture market on Hindon floodplains

NOIDA: After the Yamuna floodplains, the Noida Authority carried out an anti-encroachment drive in the Hindon floodplains and razed an unauthorised furniture market near Parthala on Thursday.
Officials said some 25 shops built on about 6,600 sqm of land at the market were demolished during the drive, which was carried out in the presence of a police force. The freed land is worth around Rs 2.5 crore.
“Notices were earlier issued to shopkeepers for removing their goods from the unauthorised market. The entire cost of this action would be recovered from the encroachers only,” an official said.
Seeing the Authority’s 25-member team on the spot, the shopkeepers had initially tried to put up a resistance. The police tried to reason with them, but when they did not listen, six people were taken into custody for obstructing the government officials from dispensing their duty.
Ashok, who goes by only a first name, said he along with his brothers had been running a furniture shop at the market for the past two years. “We had taken the place on rent. We lost goods worth Rs 6-7 lakh in the Authority’s action,” he told TOI.
Residents were, however, quick to welcome the drive. “It was anyways illegal and built on the floodplains. Lots of such shops came up here in the past one year without permission,” said Amarjeet Rathore, a resident of Gaur City.
Officials of the Authority said that no construction could be carried out in the floodplains of the Hindon and Yamuna rivers.
“Any construction here is in violation of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) rules. Besides, this land comes under the Authority notified area, while the monitoring work is done by the irrigation department. The drive to remove illegal structures will continue,” said the Noida official.
During a similar demolition drive against unauthorised farmhouses in the Yamuna floodplain in May-June this year, 124 farmhouses were demolished.